The biggest problem on the internet – according to young men
A new survey out today from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) reveals what young men consider to be the greatest problem on the internet.
You’d probably think that if you surveyed a group of 16 to 24 year old young British men on internet issues, they’d be more concerned with revenge pornography, or sexting. But according to a new survey, that’s not the case. Young men think the biggest issues on the internet are images of child sexual abuse and grooming.
The findings come in a report commissioned by the polling company ComRes, to look at the attitudes of young men, aged 16 to 24, to online safety.
Here are some key findings:
- The majority of British men, aged between 16 and 24 (54%) say that images showing the sexual abuse of children online, is one of the biggest issues on the internet.
- The same proportion (54%), think that online grooming is the biggest issue.
- Whilst 44% of young men said they would report it to the police if they accidently found images of child sexual abuse online.
- 38% admitted they’d never tell their family, if they stumbled across images or videos of child sexual abuse.
- Half (48%) of young men think that sexting or nude selfies have increased in the past year and one third (35%) think that online revenge porn has increased.
The ComRes survey has been published to support IWF’s ‘See it, Report it’ campaign which kicked off at an Everton Football Club fixture. The campaign was designed to have two elements: firstly raising awareness of the work of IWF’s anonymous reporting Hotline and secondly to trial a ground-breaking online safety workshop ‘Game On’, across Everton Football Club’s youth teams and wider footballing community.
The central aim of the project was to tackle online issues of inappropriate sexualised behaviours, as well as educate young men to the dangers of being online, through a series of targeted educational workshops.
To find out more about the Game On workshops, visit the IWF website.
Remember – If you accidently see sexual images or videos of child sexual abuse online, you can report them anonymously and confidentially to the IWF.