This problem is a UK government area of research interest (ARI) that was originally posted at https://ari.org.uk/ by a UK government organisation to indicate that they are keen to see research related to this area.
What types of harmful content exist online, and what is the impact to children’s offline behaviour?
Although there is already material evidence on the types of serious harms individuals encounter online, there still remain a number of emerging harms, where the evidence base is still yet to mature (e.g. epilepsy trolling, online animal abuse). SOH would like to close this significant gap in understanding the impact of encountering different types of serious harms online and understanding the best approaches to measuring the impact of the Online Safety legislation.
SOH highlights the importance of Media Literacy in the digital age and asks for further studies to uncover barriers to engagement as well as the effectiveness of DSIT programmes. This issue closely relates to Counter-Disinformation interventions, which requires evidence for its effect on bystanders, topic specific disinformation and what tools can be used to combat this issue.
Research on Safety Technology would greatly develop SOH’s understanding of the relationship that DSIT online safety objectives have with the technology market today. A primary focus lands on improving Age Assurance (AA) measures. This includes ensuring transparency and assessing opportunities for the sector.
Contact details
If you are keen to register your interest in working and connecting with DSIT Digital Technology and Telecoms Group and/or submitting evidence, then please complete the DSIT-ARI Evidence survey - https://dsit.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cDfmK2OukVAnirs.
Please view full details: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-science-innovation-and-technology-areas-of-research-interest/dsit-areas-of-research-interest-2024
Related UKRI Projects
- Safe Internet surfing with an intelligent child-centred shield against harmful content
- Bootstrap
- Rethinking Media Literacy and Digital Skills in Europe (REMEDIS)
- How Much is Too Much? Leveraging Existing and Emerging Large-Scale Social Data to Build Robust Evidence-Based Policy for Children in the Digital Age
- Supporting the use of digital media in research with children and young people
- ISIS: Protecting children in online social networks
- Harnessing digital data to study 21st-century adolescence
- Boosting Societal Adaptation and Mental Health in a Rapidly Digitalising, Post-Pandemic Europe (BOOTSTRAP)
- ISIS: Protecting children in online social networks
- Developing corpus approaches to safeguarding and family justice system research.