In Their Own Words: Assessing Oral History Recordings

The ‘Glaring Gap’: practitioner experiences of integrating the digital lives of vulnerable young people into practice in England

“…Participants explained that adults, particularly parents, are ill-informed and consistently poor role models, raising pertinent concerns following research proposing that parental control is the first level of protection for young people online (Khurana et al, 2014). With children concurring, 50% of UK children aged 11-17 think sometimes their parents do not understand enough about online issues' (Katz & El-Asam, 2020a).…”

“…El-Asam and Katz (2018) found that belonging to a vulnerable group (young carers, looked after children, those with communication difficulties, young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN) or mental or emotional difficulties) was associated with increased risk of encountering online risks. Research has shown that harmful online content including pro-anorexia, pro-suicide or self-harm material was increasingly shared in 2019 among already vulnerable 11-17 year olds (Katz & El-Asam, 2020a). This suggests that young people belonging to vulnerable groups are currently not adequately shielded from online harm, which in turn limits their access to the benefits they might derive from technology such as connectedness, being equal online if disabled and the ability to 'escape my issues' (Katz & El-Asam, 2020b).…”