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.