JOIN OUR CAMPAIGN TO DELAY SMARTPHONE USE AND KEEP KIDS SAFER ONLINE

We’re on a mission to make kids safer online. We aim to do this by:

  • Educating parents and carers about the harms children face online

  • Encouraging parents to delay devices for as long as possible

  • Making kids more digitally literate about scammers, predators and bullies

  • Teaching parents to set protective controls and time limits

Read the stats to see why we need to urgently rethink kids + tech

  • Sexual Harms

    Nine in ten girls reported incidents of sexist name-calling and being sent unwanted pornographic images, and these had also been sent to half of boys. They also came under pressure to send nude photos to classmates.

    Offsted Report 2021

  • Sexual Harms

    94% of children are exposed to porn by age 14, but the majority of parents do not believe their child has seen this type of harmful content.
    Middlesex University report for NSPCC and the Children's Commissioner

  • Sexual Harms

    75% of parents felt their child would not have seen pornography online, but of those children, 53% said they had in fact seen explicit content. The majority found porn accidentally.

    British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)

  • Sexting

    Thousands of children under 14 have been investigated by police for sexting - sending or requesting explicit images of a child, even yourself, is illegal.

    Police Data disclosed to the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act.

  • Sexting

    15% of 13-year-olds said they were pressured into sending explicit images of themselves – this rose to 17% of 14-year-olds and 23% of those aged over 15. One in six children who sent these images (17%) had their image shared without their consent, 14% were bullied or harassed, while a further 14% were pressured or threatened to send more images.

    2020 Cybersurvey

  • Grooming Risks

    An estimated 5% of children aged 10 to 15 years met up in person with someone they had only spoken to online (equivalent to 212,000 children) in the previous 12 months.

    ONS 2021

  • Grooming Risks

    An estimated 1 in 50 children (2%) said that they spoke to or messaged someone online in the previous 12 months who they thought was their age but later found out were much older.

    ONS 2021

  • Grooming Risks

    In 2021/22, there were 6,156 Sexual Communication with a Child offences, an increase on the previous year.

    NSPCC

  • Grooming Risks

    The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) receives more than 600 reports of grooming a month. But this is the tip of the iceberg as many children will hide abuse from their parents.

  • Grooming Risks

    In 2020, nearly 22 million reports of child sexual exploitation were made to the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, including over 65 million images, videos and other files

    UK Online Safety Data Initiative

  • Mental Health

    Excessive smartphone use is associated with psychiatric, cognitive, emotional, medical and brain changes that should be considered by health and education professionals.

    Front Psychiatry. 2021

  • Harmful Experiences

    Over 80% of children (aged 12-15) say they’ve had potentially harmful experiences online.

    Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport

Even if you’ve set up controls or trust your child, they are at risk of being exposed to harmful content. Kids are often sent or shown damaging content, including extreme porn, by their peers or older children. Most don’t tell their parents, because of embarrassment, not wanting to make a fuss or not wanting to get themselves or another kid into trouble - and the blowback that this might produce socially or at school.

What can you do to protect children online?

  • SHARE THE RISKS: Please share with other parents so they realise how important it is to set up controls and educate their kids about online risks.

  • GET SUPPORT: If you have specific questions about dealing with this topic within your own family, visit our safer screen time facebook group.

  • SUPPORT US: Donate to our crowdfunder or on our website so we can launch paid social media campaigns to reach more parents and kids.

  • KEEP UPDATED: Our team are busy spotting the latest trends impacting children and we’ll be posting updates on our site and social media.

  • GET INVOLVED: Got something to add to the conversation or think you can help with our campaign? Please contact us on info@teched-off.com

How social media was designed to be extremely addictive

It is hard enough for adults to limit their social media use but children have much lower impulse control and are often very keen to get approval and fear missing out. They are therefore even more vulnerable to the addictive nature of social media and the dopamine hits it produces.