Selfies, Snapchat and Keeping Safe: How do looked after children engage online?

End of project summary

Main messages

The aim of this project was to understand the online lives of looked after young people and those with care experience in Wales. The project had 2 phases: statistical analysis of an existing data set and interviews with Welsh care experienced and looked after young people to explore their online lives. We explored their online activities, their views on social media, and issues related cyberbullying and other negative online experienced. The interviews of 31 young people were organised into themes and analysed. 

• Boys were more likely to be cyber bullies whereas girls were more likely to be cyber victims.  

• Involvement in cyberbullying increased in Year 7 and then reduced by Year 11. 

• Young people in care were more likely to be both cyber bullies and victims than those not in care. 

• Young people in care were more likely to have problematic social media usage. 

• Young people in care were five times more likely to be involved in cyberbullying if they had already experienced traditional (in person, in school) bullying. 

• Girls had lower wellbeing scores than boys and scores decreased with age. 

• When young people in care had a smart phone by the age of twelve, their wellbeing scores improved. However, if they were involved with problematic social media usage, their wellbeing scores decreased. 

• Interview participants went online at the average age of twelve, accessed social media at the average age of thirteen and obtained their first device (smartphone, tablet, laptop) at the average age of fourteen. 

• All interview participants used social media and spent significant amounts of time online with many using secret or private accounts for varying reasons. 

• 30% of interview participants had negative experiences online.