Research RESEARCHMethodologyMETHODOLOGY

This project sought to close the gap that currently exists between academia, government, NGO’s, social enterprises and tech companies to establish what work is being done to support children and young people’s digital lives, identify the limitations of existing provisions and opportunities for potential collaborative solutions.

To address this aim we developed the following research questions:

1. How can we better support children and young people’s wellbeing online?

What are the current risks and opportunities for children and young people online?

3. How can we have more constructive conversations with children and young people about their online lives?

4. Why is it still difficult to have conversations with children and young people?

5. How can we transform online safety education?

To answer our research questions we conducted 23 unstructured interviews starting in December 2019 with academics, government officials, NGO’s, and social enterprises.

Data underwent thematic analysis - themes were noted down as they appeared in the data and a coding scheme was developed.

To answer our research questions we conducted unstructured interviews with academics, government officials, NGO’s, and social enterprises, but we were unable to get any respondents from tech companies. In total we conducted twenty-three interviews. The interviews began in December 2019. Twelve were conducted in person, and due to the global pandemic eleven were conducted remotely by phone or online. We used a snowball sampling method. We asked the participants to put us in touch with anyone they thought we should interview.

During the interviews participants were invited to discuss any aspect of their experiences working within the remit of online safety education. Although we prepared guiding questions, we tried to not lead participants in any particular direction during the interview. Participants could express their views anonymously, partly or fully on record. All interviews were transcribed and approved by the participant.

A thematic analysis of the data was undertaken line-by-line whereby themes were noted down as they appeared in the data and an initial coding scheme was developed. The categories were developed and refined in an iterative process. Written summaries of thematic categories informed the interpretation of the data. This report details the findings generated from these interviews.