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3 June 2015
By Rebecca Avery

Barnardo's publication - "Youth And The Internet: a guide for policy makers"

Barnardo's have published a report (May 2015) written by Jonathan Rallings, which highlights concerns about the impact the internet is, and may be, having on young people, emerging from two central ideas beginning to gain traction in public debate:

  • That the effect of the internet age may (or may not) represent a more fundamental divide in the 'generation gap' than previous experience of technology impacting on young people.
  • That teenagers' emotional needs do not seem to have significantly altered in a generation, but the consequences of teenage behaviour are now radically amplified - for good as well as bad - by the internet.

As a 'think' paper this report does not make specific recommendations as such, but suggests politicians, civil servants, and other leaders invovled in childrens welfare and wellbeing will need to reconsider some outdated assumptions when making policy around youth and the internet. The publication can be accessed here