INTRO: Welcome to the NSPCC learning Podcast, where we

INTRO: share learning and expertise in child protection

INTRO: from inside and outside of the organisation.

INTRO: We aim to create debate, encourage reflection and

INTRO: share good practice on how we can all work together

INTRO: to keep babies, children and young people safe.

PRODUCER: Welcome to the NSPCC Learning Podcast.

PRODUCER: The online world is constantly changing and young

PRODUCER: people are often at the cutting edge of these

PRODUCER: changes.

PRODUCER: They're often more informed about online trends

PRODUCER: than adults, and are equipped with unique

PRODUCER: knowledge and understanding of what they need to

PRODUCER: know and do to stay safe online.

PRODUCER: It is important to listen to them and try and

PRODUCER: incorporate their voice into your online safety

PRODUCER: work. In this podcast episode, recorded in

PRODUCER: January 2025, we'll be doing just that.

PRODUCER: You'll hear from two members of the Voice of

PRODUCER: Online Youth, a group of young people aged 13

PRODUCER: to 17 who help advise the NSPCC

PRODUCER: and the wider online safety sector on how to help

PRODUCER: children have safe and happy experiences online.

PRODUCER: Will and Zara will provide their own insights and

PRODUCER: experiences on what online life is like from

PRODUCER: their perspective, including what they get up to

PRODUCER: online; what steps they take to stay safe;

PRODUCER: what worries them about being online; and what

PRODUCER: they'd like to learn more about when it comes to

PRODUCER: online safety.

PRODUCER: I'll hand over now to Will and Zara to introduce

PRODUCER: themselves.

WILL: Hi, my name is Will and I guess I joined the Voice of

WILL: Online Youth because I really think it's

WILL: great to give young people a voice when often in this

WILL: space they're overlooked, even though online safety

WILL: is centred around young people because they're the

WILL: ones often online.

WILL: I really enjoy public speaking, so I thought this

WILL: would be a great opportunity to give a voice to young

WILL: people when it comes to online safety.

ZARA: Hi, my name is Zara and I joined the Voice of Online

ZARA: Youth because I want to make the internet a safer and

ZARA: more positive place for people my age.

ZARA: A lot of the decisions about online platforms are

ZARA: made by adults who don't fully understand what we go

ZARA: through or what matters to us, and I want to make

ZARA: sure our voices are heard.

PRODUCER: Thank you both so much for joining us on the

PRODUCER: podcast. In this podcast, we want to try and

PRODUCER: provide an understanding of what online life is

PRODUCER: like for young people.

PRODUCER: So my first question: what sorts of activities

PRODUCER: do you get up to online?

WILL: So online nowadays is almost everything

WILL: that I do because it's not

WILL: just playing video games and talking with friends

WILL: and things online. It's also that school's involved

WILL: online. I look at all my homework online and I do

WILL: quizzes online.

WILL: There's quite a lot online that I feel like people

WILL: wouldn't really notice is there.

WILL: It's just sort of passively online and it's there.

ZARA: I spend a lot of time online doing a mix of things.

ZARA: Social media is probably the main one.

ZARA: I keep in touch with friends or just see what's

ZARA: trending. I also stream music or watch shows,

ZARA: but I feel like when adults think of online...

ZARA: Well, uses for the internet, they don't have

ZARA: a nuanced view. They think it's just for

ZARA: entertainment. But, similar to what Will said,

ZARA: we have a lot of our school work on there or anything

ZARA: educational. It's not just one singular thing.

WILL: It's not like being online is a necessity.

WILL: It's just really, really useful.

WILL: And it's a tool that a lot of people can use and get

WILL: a lot of use out of.

WILL: Sure, I could just dial up my friends on the home

WILL: phone, but it's a lot easier to just Facetime them

WILL: and then be able to see them as well.

WILL: And it's more convenient.

PRODUCER: What's the one thing that you wouldn't be able to

PRODUCER: do without when it comes to being online?

ZARA: I feel like for me, schoolwork is

ZARA: one of the big ones because, frankly, I don't

ZARA: see anyone going to the library

ZARA: and getting textbooks; most of them are online for

ZARA: me. And if I couldn't do that, I'd have to stay

ZARA: after school and then it would make my journey longer

ZARA: and it would affect other things in my life.

ZARA: And also, just talking to friends.

ZARA: Some of us live really far away, so we can't really

ZARA: meet person to person, and it's just,

ZARA: all in all, more convenient.

WILL: I totally agree with Zara that schoolwork is really

WILL: useful to have online, but I'd say if there's one

WILL: thing that would have to, you know, take the top, it

WILL: would probably just be as simple as talking to your

WILL: friends online.

WILL: I think it's really overlooked that you can just send

WILL: people messages and they'll get back to you really

WILL: quickly. Whereas, you know, before the internet

WILL: was really a thing, that just couldn't happen.

PRODUCER: So it's clear that being able to go online is

PRODUCER: important to both of you.

PRODUCER: My next question is more to do with online

PRODUCER: safety. What makes you feel safe and comfortable

PRODUCER: online?

ZARA: I feel comfortable online when I know the platform

ZARA: I'm using really well.

ZARA: Because if I don't, I feel

ZARA: if I see something bad, how am I going to report it?

ZARA: Or how am I going to tell someone?

ZARA: Familiarity. It makes it easier to navigate and I

ZARA: know how to handle settings like privacy controls or

ZARA: reporting tools. It's also reassuring when I'm

ZARA: part of communities that are really well moderated

ZARA: and there's no toxic behaviour or, well, it's not

ZARA: known for toxic behaviour.

ZARA: I generally feel safest when I'm in control

ZARA: of what I see or what I share or what

ZARA: people say to me.

WILL: Zara's pretty much hit the nail on the pin there— on

WILL: the pin? On the head. But yeah, I feel like there's

WILL: not too many times where I'm feeling uncomfortable

WILL: online now that I'm just familiar with everything

WILL: that I see. Yeah, it's just so normalised

WILL: that, because I'm in control of pretty much

WILL: everything that I see, there's nothing terrible that

WILL: makes me feel really uncomfortable.

PRODUCER: I wanted to pick up on Zara's point about

PRODUCER: moderation and privacy settings.

PRODUCER: Do you both take control of your own privacy

PRODUCER: settings, or is this something that maybe your

PRODUCER: parents were involved in?

PRODUCER: Or maybe a bit of both?

ZARA: I feel like when I was younger, my mum would always

ZARA: make an account for me and she just put me on child's

ZARA: settings and then she'd think I'd be safe.

ZARA: Now I just... More than that I just alter

ZARA: my 'For You' page more on things I don't want to see,

ZARA: rather than just outright block everything

ZARA: that's not appropriate, because then I can just

ZARA: feel safe and I can still find stuff that I like

ZARA: and be entertained by.

PRODUCER: And just quickly, when you say the 'For You'

PRODUCER: page, what app are you talking about here?

PRODUCER: Is it Instagram? TikTok?

ZARA: I still use TikTok and it's got

ZARA: a button where you can say, "I'm not interested in

ZARA: this". And whenever I get a new app like

ZARA: Instagram — I got Instagram a few days ago and the

ZARA: whole day I just spent sorting it out, going through

ZARA: a bunch of videos, saying what I like and don't like.

ZARA: So then the next day, it's kind of used to content

ZARA: that I enjoy, and I think that's really important

ZARA: because otherwise, you know, algorithms won't work or

ZARA: anything.

PRODUCER: I'm really struck by what you say Zara about,

PRODUCER: kind of, manipulating the algorithm so that

PRODUCER: you're getting the content that you want to see.

PRODUCER: When it comes to things like moderation,

PRODUCER: are you approaching it from a "I know what I want

PRODUCER: to see" kind of way? Or is it more of a "I

PRODUCER: know I don't want to see" kind of way?

PRODUCER: And are there settings within the apps that you

PRODUCER: will set up to block any content that you don't

PRODUCER: really want to see?

ZARA: I feel like it's a mix of both.

ZARA: For example TikTok, if you just say "I'm not

ZARA: interested" in stuff, the stuff that you are

ZARA: interested will just be there.

ZARA: But other apps work a bit differently.

ZARA: For example, Instagram: I like the videos

ZARA: that I like and enjoy, so then those mainly come

ZARA: up. But for TikTok it's the other way around.

ZARA: I just say "I'm not interested in this".

ZARA: So it just varies across apps.

WILL: Well, I mean, it was really interesting seeing what

WILL: Zara had to say about manipulating your algorithm,

WILL: because I kind of do that too.

WILL: You know, you have to like the videos that you like,

WILL: straight away just scroll past videos that you

WILL: wouldn't find interesting, even if— Say you stumble

WILL: upon a video that has, you know, completely opposing

WILL: views to you, and you want to view that video just

WILL: out of curiosity because what have I got to say?

WILL: I don't like this kind of content, but still, I'm

WILL: interested in the opposing views to mine.

WILL: And then you just suddenly get loads of videos like

WILL: that, hundreds of videos that are just

WILL: not your views. And then you're like, "oh no, what's

WILL: happened here?" So you have to be really careful with

WILL: what you watch and what you like and what you

WILL: dislike.

ZARA: I think yesterday, I was watching something out of

ZARA: curiosity, and then the next day my

ZARA: whole 'For You' page filled with that.

ZARA: And then it didn't let me go back to my original

ZARA: 'For You' page for a couple of days. I think that's

ZARA: definitely a really good point.

PRODUCER: And do you worry about algorithms and how they're

PRODUCER: affecting what you see?

ZARA: Maybe not for me, but I feel like for other people,

ZARA: because if they see that repeatedly...

ZARA: I don't know about you, but if you see a story and

ZARA: you hear it from one person, I feel like you're

ZARA: more likely to believe it from the first person you

ZARA: heard for some reason.

ZARA: And I feel like if other people saw

ZARA: algorithms just, you know, only conveying

ZARA: one view, they'll be more likely to believe that.

ZARA: And then it just creates a whole cycle.

WILL: Yeah. I was just going to say it is kind of crazy how

WILL: futile algorithms are.

WILL: The other day, I was just trying to make a point to

WILL: my TikTok that I want to watch lots of stand up

WILL: comedians. So I was following all these great stand

WILL: up comedians, I was like, "oh, this is great".

WILL: And then the next day, because of Donald Trump's

WILL: inauguration, my whole algorithm was filled with

WILL: content about that.

WILL: And then suddenly, now that it isn't as relevant

WILL: anymore, I'm now getting stand up comedians again.

WILL: So I just wish it was more permanent.

WILL: But it still needs to be easy to change.

PRODUCER: Just really fascinating to hear you both talk

PRODUCER: about the algorithms and how you can manipulate

PRODUCER: them or what changes you'd like to see.

PRODUCER: My next question — we sort of touched on this

PRODUCER: because it's a flip of the question I've just

PRODUCER: asked — what makes you feel less comfortable

PRODUCER: online?

WILL: Yeah, I guess fairly similarly to what we've already

WILL: said, just videos coming up that we don't feel

WILL: comfortable with that are hard to push

WILL: away. Especially when if you watch the entire video,

WILL: even if it's just by accident, like you leave it

WILL: sitting on the counter and it runs twice, then you're

WILL: going to get lots of videos like that one.

WILL: So yeah, I guess better control would be very

WILL: helpful.

ZARA: Something that makes me feel less comfortable is when

ZARA: there's misinformation, but when

ZARA: it's a large amount.

ZARA: For example, for my 'For You' page, it's a mixture

ZARA: of what I like and what's trending.

ZARA: And sometimes people like stuff that

ZARA: isn't true or AI deepfakes or something.

ZARA: For example, my dad sent me a really

ZARA: popular video and I was like, "oh, this is going to

ZARA: be funny." It was an AI image.

ZARA: And my dad's like, "oh my God, that's so cool.

ZARA: Have you seen this before?" And I was like, "no, dad,

ZARA: it's AI".

PRODUCER: Is it something that you'd like to learn more

PRODUCER: about in school — the impacts of misinformation

PRODUCER: or how these things work, how these technologies

PRODUCER: work?

ZARA: Yeah, definitely. Today I had PD day — which is

ZARA: personal development, but I think some schools have

ZARA: PSHE — and the theme was online safety.

ZARA: I don't think we did anything on AI or

ZARA: misinformation. It was just cyberbullying,

ZARA: don't post certain stuff, digital footprint; just

ZARA: like the normal things that we learn in school.

ZARA: And if you do want to learn about it, I feel like you

ZARA: have to actually research it.

ZARA: And then sometimes the research that you do, it's

ZARA: biased. So I feel like it'd be really good if you had

ZARA: a reliable source of information of how to tell

ZARA: what's AI or not.

WILL: Like Zara, I also think it's interesting that schools

WILL: are still, in today's day, repeating the

WILL: same information that lots of us have heard again and

WILL: again about cyberbullying and stuff that,

WILL: you know, we all know is important, but we've heard

WILL: it a million times. Whereas I've never heard a

WILL: teacher mention AI to me in a way that wasn't just

WILL: conversational.

WILL: So it would be really interesting to see the

WILL: curriculum updated to mention current topics

WILL: and affairs. You know, artificial intelligence is

WILL: sort of a sci-fi movie concept, but it's real today.

WILL: It's reality, and we need to be taught about it.

ZARA: I 100% agree with Will, because the internet

ZARA: and the online world is evolving, but our

ZARA: curriculum isn't.

ZARA: For example, my teacher — she was giving an example

ZARA: of an app and she said 'MySpace'.

ZARA: And then she said 'Vine'.

ZARA: And mind you, most of us are Gen Alpha, Gen Z,

ZARA: so none of us knew what it was unless we'd seen

ZARA: skits. And we were so confused, because she was

ZARA: giving us an example of how to report

ZARA: something, and we were so confused the whole time.

PRODUCER: Yeah. And with young people using so many

PRODUCER: different apps, it can be tricky to have

PRODUCER: knowledge of all of them.

PRODUCER: When you make those decisions to say, "oh,

PRODUCER: I'm going to use this new app", do you talk to

PRODUCER: anyone about it? Do you talk to your teachers?

WILL: I mean, I guess when I first got Instagram, not

WILL: a lot of people that I knew were on it.

WILL: So there's barely anyone to talk to about it, to be

WILL: fair. But, you know, you'll mention it to your

WILL: friends like, "oh, I've got Instagram and there's

WILL: this feature that I didn't know is there, and there's

WILL: this and that."

ZARA: I don't think anyone thinks about talking

ZARA: to a teacher.

ZARA: If I was getting Instagram, I didn't go to my form

ZARA: tutor and ask "Miss, should I get Insta?" I just

ZARA: thought of getting it.

ZARA: So I just went on my app and downloaded it.

ZARA: But I feel like even if I did, I feel like they'd

ZARA: tell me not to or say something, you

ZARA: know, negative. Or if I said I'm going to get

ZARA: something, they're just going to be like, "make sure

ZARA: to set, you know, blocks and stuff on there." I

ZARA: feel like we only hear teachers talk about how to

ZARA: stay safe online, like it's so bad that

ZARA: we need to be taught how to stay safe, not to enjoy

ZARA: it. It's normalised that it's bad

ZARA: and we should know how to deal with it, rather than

ZARA: what things it could be useful for.

WILL: Yeah, definitely there needs to be more positivity

WILL: about being online. But again, you can't just

WILL: completely ignore the negatives, because there are

WILL: negatives and they are important.

WILL: It's sort of important to have a non-biased

WILL: view of things and a balanced view of things.

WILL: Otherwise it's just not going to work.

PRODUCER: Yeah, my next question was going to be more about

PRODUCER: those worries and concerns and

PRODUCER: possibly negatives rather than positives.

PRODUCER: What are the things about being online that

PRODUCER: concern you the most right now?

WILL: I guess the thing that is most concerning is people's

WILL: lack of awareness.

WILL: If you look online and you see something,

WILL: I can usually tell if something's AI generated, but

WILL: it's getting better and better.

WILL: But there's so many people in the comments section,

WILL: they're like, "wow, is this real?

WILL: I never knew that, that's crazy!" Because why

WILL: wouldn't you believe it? Because it's on your phone,

WILL: and BBC News is on your phone.

WILL: It's only one click away from your TikTok feed.

ZARA: That's a really good point, because if you think

ZARA: about concerns, people are just going to say

ZARA: generated images or deepfakes.

ZARA: But the actual aspect of people not being aware of

ZARA: how bad it is, is much more scary to think about.

ZARA: This morning we had an assembly on how AI

ZARA: was, you know, manipulating people, which is actually

ZARA: quite good for my school; quite progressive to talk

ZARA: about AI. They gave an example that

ZARA: someone cloned David Attenborough's voice

ZARA: and the person next to me said, "oh, that's so funny.

ZARA: Imagine people are listening to that and getting

ZARA: pranked." I think she gave an example of just David

ZARA: Attenborough saying, "oh no, the house cat has gone

ZARA: extinct." And then people, you know, believing that.

ZARA: And you feel like it's normal to make jokes but

ZARA: I don't think a lot of people understand that it

ZARA: could be used for much more malicious purposes.

PRODUCER: And speaking of malicious purposes,

PRODUCER: are either of you worried about the potential use

PRODUCER: of generative AI in relation to cyberbullying?

WILL: I mean, it's easy to worry about it because it's

WILL: already happening. You know, people are getting

WILL: images made of them that are just— obviously they

WILL: aren't them. But to a lot of people, they see that

WILL: image straight away and think, "that's my friend.

WILL: Why are they doing that?" And it's concerning the

WILL: effects that AI can have and is already having.

WILL: But, as well, you have to look to the future.

WILL: Because if AI is like this now, and you compare that

WILL: to AI from last year, there's already been

WILL: so much progression that it's only going to get more

WILL: and more realistic. So change needs to happen now to

WILL: stop more concern in the future.

PRODUCER: How would you advise schools approach the problem

PRODUCER: of generative AI?

WILL: I mean, it would benefit a lot of people if they just

WILL: had one lesson in their entire life that said, you

WILL: know, how to spot AI images, look for extra fingers

WILL: and that kind of thing.

WILL: Because a lot of people...

WILL: Even though a lot of people would assume everyone

WILL: from the younger generation is super-prepared

WILL: and knows everything about being online and

WILL: they're constantly online, even people who are

WILL: constantly online don't have to be 100%

WILL: informed about the risks or about AI.

ZARA: Everything that Will said I agree with, especially

ZARA: about how it has to be done now.

ZARA: For example, how you have to write that something is

ZARA: AI generated, or if something, you

ZARA: know, is made by AI.

ZARA: Even companies now are getting away with it.

ZARA: For example, chatGPT.

ZARA: It says chatGPT can make mistakes and blah blah blah.

ZARA: But it's in really tiny

ZARA: font and it's in a separate tab thing, you have

ZARA: to click an arrow for it to appear, and you have to

ZARA: actively search for it to say that it's

ZARA: AI generated.

ZARA: Especially in images where you can make AI generated

ZARA: images, it's not even a watermark anymore it's

ZARA: a tiny, like, writing bit on the edge of

ZARA: it.

WILL: Yeah. On Zara's point, what she was saying about how

WILL: ChatGPT has a very small marker saying "this could

WILL: not be true." AI's like ChatGPT, Google

WILL: Gemini, they'll present pretty much everything as

WILL: solid fact. I know it went viral a short while

WILL: ago: if you ask ChatGPT how many R's are there in the

WILL: word 'strawberry', it literally doesn't know.

WILL: But it'll say to you, "oh, there are five R's in

WILL: 'strawberry'", and it's not going to say

WILL: "sorry, I just don't know how to answer that" because

WILL: it can't. It's not programmed to say "no" to

WILL: anything that isn't illegal, basically.

ZARA: There is someone saying "one plus one equals three"

ZARA: to chatGPT so many times that it just said, "yeah, it

ZARA: is three". So many other people did that.

ZARA: And now if you ask, there's a

ZARA: chance that it might say "three" because ChatGPT is

ZARA: not based just on AI, it's kind of

ZARA: general knowledge and it just picks the most looked

ZARA: at. For example, if you just Google on Google Gemini,

ZARA: it just picks the top answers and then puts it there.

ZARA: So it's not definite fact but people take it as

ZARA: definite fact. And if you're googling something, you

ZARA: don't want to go into article, you want it in a tiny

ZARA: little square at the top of your page, because

ZARA: I don't think people really take the initiative to

ZARA: check if the information is true or not.

ZARA: They just, you know, go with it.

PRODUCER: Moving on from generative AI a little bit, I

PRODUCER: wonder if there are any other things about being

PRODUCER: online that concern you at the moment?

WILL: I guess if there was one other thing other than

WILL: generative AI that's concerning, it's

WILL: the amount of control that you don't

WILL: have over what you see.

WILL: I know we were mentioning earlier about trying to

WILL: manipulate your algorithm into giving you the videos

WILL: that you want.

WILL: But nowadays people can buy views.

WILL: Like literally, if you upload a TikTok video, it'll

WILL: say, "oh, this video is doing great.

WILL: Want to make it do greater? Pay us £5 and then we'll

WILL: give it 100,000 views." That's

WILL: scary that you can just manipulate what other people

WILL: see. And that means that you're not in control of

WILL: what you see either.

ZARA: I know how we were talking about, you know,

ZARA: manipulating your 'For You' page, but I don't think

ZARA: anyone really understands how algorithms actually

ZARA: work or why it's tailored to me.

ZARA: I know it's just because, you know, if you like

ZARA: something, it will come up to you, but also the

ZARA: impact on following people.

ZARA: For example, when I got Instagram, I followed my

ZARA: friends and the videos that they watched came to me

ZARA: even before they sent it to me.

ZARA: So I'd really love to learn how that works as well.

PRODUCER: How does that make you feel when you're getting

PRODUCER: served the same content that your friend is

PRODUCER: before they even send it to you?

PRODUCER: Does that feel strange?

ZARA: I think it does feel strange, because if you think

ZARA: about the 'For You' page, it literally has the word

ZARA: "you", not "for your friend" page.

ZARA: But, sometimes... I used to think it was kind of

ZARA: funny because, before my friend would send me a meme,

ZARA: I could say "I watched that already".

ZARA: But now it's kind of...

ZARA: I don't really like how it impacts stuff, because

ZARA: even though they are my friends, some stuff I don't

ZARA: agree with or I don't find as funny, but it'll

ZARA: just be on my 'For You' page. So I think it's

ZARA: something that needs to be looked at.

WILL: Yeah, I totally agree with you Zara on that point

WILL: because I've been having the same problem recently.

WILL: My friend sends me a video and 80% of the time I've

WILL: already seen it. Is this really a 'for me' page?

WILL: Because it seems like everyone in my friendship

WILL: group's getting the exact same posts, and

WILL: that's just strange to me.

PRODUCER: And do either of you worry about

PRODUCER: the data that these apps and these online

PRODUCER: companies are gathering to power their

PRODUCER: algorithms? Is that a concern for either of you?

WILL: I feel like you're kind of aware that

WILL: they're taking your data. And because it, you

WILL: know, says it in the name — it's 'for you'.

WILL: It feels like I don't mind

WILL: too much that they're taking it because at least

WILL: they're given me videos.

WILL: But it is concerning when you don't know where that

WILL: data might end up outside of the platform that you're

WILL: on.

ZARA: I feel like you obviously consent to stuff.

ZARA: To be on the app, you have to click 'consent',

ZARA: otherwise you can't use the app

ZARA: itself. And I think people just complain for the

ZARA: point of complaining, but you can actively look for

ZARA: it. But I remember we were working on our manifesto

ZARA: last year, and we were talking about how a lot of

ZARA: young people, or just people in general, don't really

ZARA: look at it; they just click 'accept' because, you

ZARA: know, I want to see the videos.

ZARA: And I think— I think it was Will's group, they made

ZARA: the idea of having a little pop-up tab of

ZARA: the vendors and stuff, so then people can see where

ZARA: the data gets sent to. But it's only a summary of it,

ZARA: so then more people are more likely to read it?

PRODUCER: I'm conscious we're nearly at the end of our

PRODUCER: time, but I have one concluding question for you

PRODUCER: both. What are the top three things

PRODUCER: you think adults should know about what online

PRODUCER: life is like for young people?

WILL: I've got three. They're not really in any kind of

WILL: particular order.

WILL: So, my first one being that generative AI

WILL: isn't just homework answers.

WILL: It is a lot more than that and it can be

WILL: genuinely quite dangerous.

WILL: My second one is that algorithms are

WILL: a big part of young people's lives and they

WILL: aren't super easy to control or get out of your life.

WILL: It's not like you can just put the phone down a lot

WILL: of the time.

WILL: That doesn't mean it's super hard to either.

WILL: It's like... It's a controllable yet

WILL: uncontrollable part of your life.

WILL: So, I guess my last point is it's not as easy

WILL: as just hitting block or turning off your phone

WILL: to stop an issue that's happening

WILL: because you can't just switch off your phone

WILL: for the rest of your life. I feel like even adults

WILL: would know that. You know, I know so many adults that

WILL: are scrolling on Instagram Reels all day and then

WILL: belittling young people for scrolling on TikTok all

WILL: day — it's the same thing.

WILL: But you can't just hit block either, because, you

WILL: know, people constantly make new accounts, they find

WILL: new ways, and they adapt around changes.

PRODUCER: Thanks, Will. Zara, what are your thoughts on

PRODUCER: this question?

ZARA: I have one key point that goes into three.

ZARA: Online safety isn't just cyberbullying, because I

ZARA: feel like that's the main focus of every single PD

ZARA: lesson. And also the complexity of cyberbullying.

ZARA: It's not just someone blatantly saying, "I don't like

ZARA: you." It kind of includes microaggressions and

ZARA: even stuff that teachers don't realise, like if

ZARA: someone didn't tag you in a post, that would

ZARA: hurt, or something like that.

ZARA: And it's not just someone commenting on your post or

ZARA: DMing you privately, but it's other stuff,

ZARA: more detailed stuff. And I feel like schools should

ZARA: be more aware of that. And also addictive behaviour:

ZARA: I feel like schools think that we're

ZARA: the ones at fault for it, like we're actively

ZARA: thinking, "oh I'm going to go on my phone.

ZARA: I'm not going to do my homework.

ZARA: I'm going to spend six hours on TikTok in my bed."

ZARA: But I don't think they understand the role of

ZARA: algorithms. It's designed to keep

ZARA: us scrolling for hours. That just means that doing

ZARA: their job well. So it's not just us at fault.

ZARA: And also the emotional impact of misinformation.

ZARA: I feel like a lot of schools just teach

ZARA: us not to spread information because, you know, it

ZARA: could be used maliciously.

ZARA: But even hearing it,

ZARA: a lot of people feel emotionally connected to

ZARA: something. And if they hear something against that

ZARA: that isn't real; or they know it isn't real and then

ZARA: loads of people are agreeing with that; or your

ZARA: friends have seen it and they're like, "yeah, that's

ZARA: definitely true, I saw it ten times", it

ZARA: could be overwhelming and it's really confusing.

PRODUCER: So that brings us to the end of our discussion

PRODUCER: today. Zara.

PRODUCER: Will, thank you so much for joining us on the

PRODUCER: podcast and providing a really interesting

PRODUCER: insight into your thoughts and opinions on the

PRODUCER: online world and online safety.

WILL: Thank you so much for having us.

ZARA: Thank you.

PRODUCER: If you've enjoyed this episode and would like to

PRODUCER: hear more from the NSPCC's Voice of Online Youth,

PRODUCER: you can find a link to their manifesto for change

PRODUCER: in the podcast shownotes.

PRODUCER: You'll also find links to lots of other resources

PRODUCER: and training to help you keep children safe

PRODUCER: online.

PRODUCER: Thanks for listening.

OUTRO: Thanks for listening to this NSPCC learning Podcast.

OUTRO: At the time of recording, this episode's content was

OUTRO: up to date, but the world of safeguarding and child

OUTRO: protection is ever-changing.

OUTRO: So, if you're looking for the most current

OUTRO: safeguarding and child protection training,

OUTRO: information or resources, please visit

OUTRO: our website for professionals at

OUTRO: nspcc.org.uk/learning.