Digital risks

Risks children and young people may face in a digital everyday life.

The risks of engaging online

This broad category encompasses research about a range of risks that children and young people encounter when they engage with the Internet and digital media. Important for our research in this regard is the differentiation between risk and harm. Risk refers to the potential for something to happen, whereas harm relates to the actual occurrence or experience of harm.

Both research and public debates about media harms can often conflate these two concepts bringing about what has been conceptualized by Kirsten Drotner and others as 'media panic'.

It is important for research and for society in general that these concepts be treated separately, as we cannot fully understand the harm, or work to prevent it if our discussions focus purely on risk. This is particularly the case in research about children and young people.

Main risks:

Online aggression and bullying
Sexual communication and sexual content
Cyberhate
Negative user-generated content, including content about self-harm, suicide, ways of being very thin, and drug abuse
Excessive Internet use