Molly, 20, started using social media as a teenager. “I’m on Instagram and I use TikTok a bit. I speak out on LGBT issues, mental health and climate change,” Molly says.
“I’ve been one of many voices advocating for reform of the sex education curriculum. I like social media because it brings communities together to speak out, and can help us feel less alone.”
But, as far back as their teenage years, Molly – who is non-binary and uses the pronoun “they” – has been subjected to a torrent of abuse online.
“After I voiced my opinion on reform of queer sex education, I woke up one morning to 2,000 comments. By the time the comments are taken down – if at all – they’ve already been read. I’ve had memes made about me for being non-binary. I’ve been doxxed, with my personal details published, which could allow people to find me in real life. I have had death threats,” Molly says.
“When I went to the debs’ ball in a yellow suit and with rainbow eyebrows – basically, a drag make-up look – I posted it on TikTok, and the comments were relentless. People have even trawled into my family’s life and made personal comments about my parents. At times it was relentless and it took a toll on my family.”
While people are entitled to disagree and express their opinion, Molly says lines are regularly crossed, and points out that they were a child when much of this happened.
So, why stay online?
“If I stop being online they win. And I don’t want to be silenced. I want people to understand me,” Molly says.
“It still happens, and I know that more may come from speaking out. It hasn’t put me off, but I think that big tech companies should do more to protect young people online.”
The internet was designed by adults, for adults, but a third of global users are children. And we need media literacy to be core to the curriculum, embedded into different subjects through critical thinking
— Alex Cooney, chief executive of CyberSafeKids
Molly was among the speakers at the People’s Inquiry into Digital Harms – an event run by Uplift, a progressive non-profit organisation, in November 2024, which heard testimony from people of all ages about how online hatred, disinformation and toxicity affects their lives. The day also featured a panel discussion from experts and policymakers.
One mother spoke of how her two children, who are mixed race and have brown skin, have been increasingly targeted by young boys who are fans of Andrew Tate, a self-described misogynist. She also worries about the “bombardment” of her daughters with image-based products.
“It’s all or nothing,” she says. “Do I cut them off from communicating with their friends or, despite my best efforts, have them bombarded with harmful content and ads? We need more regulation, especially of advertising to children.”
All of this comes as increasing evidence shows that many social media algorithms increasingly push misogynistic content at boys and young men, while girls are often targeted with stories designed to make them feel bad about themselves and their body image. Many youngsters are being targeted by content that romanticises suicide. Even children who do not have phones are being exposed to pornography and sexual violence that distorts their view of normal sex and intimacy.
These recommender algorithms are designed by big corporations who want to keep young people online for as long as possible in order to advertise more and more to them by artificially amplifying whatever will engage – or enrage – users.
Children are also being groomed online, even on the seemingly child-friendly app, Roblox. And the proliferation of conspiracy theories and misinformation can make it increasingly difficult to tell truth from fiction.
Just over a quarter (25 per cent) of primary schoolchildren (aged 8-12) and one-fifth (21 per cent) of secondary schoolchildren (aged 12-14) have been bothered or upset by harmful content such as scams, harassment, horror, and sexual material online, according to figures published in CyberSafeKids’ annual trends and usage report, Left To Their Own Devices.
More and more, teachers are having to deal with the fallout in the classroom. So, how can we address this stream of intentionally divisive and harmful content?
A recently reviewed social, personal and health education (SPHE) curriculum places greater focus on media literacy, but Alex Cooney, founder and chief executive of CyberSafeKids, says it is peripheral and dependent on teachers’ ability and level of comfort with the topic.
“There are also a number of external organisations – including ourselves – which deliver talks to parents, young people, teachers and youth workers, but these don’t have a dedicated budget and are at the discretion of the school. And we’re often called in after there has been an issue in a school,” she says.
“Parents think, and often say, that my child is not seeing anything like this online, but unfortunately it’s not about if they see it, it’s about when.”
Cooney does not advocate for bans or shutting down social media.
A handful of corporations are manipulating these tools that we use to communicate, connect, organise our lives, learn, shop, work, and access information and news, for their private profit. Algorithms should be turned off by default, and there should be greater transparency on how they work
— Siobhán O’Donoghue, co-founder and director of Uplift
“We want to ensure that children can both benefit and thrive online. We just want this to be safe, in the same way that safety is paramount in playground design. The internet was designed by adults, for adults, but a third of global users are children. And we need media literacy to be core to the curriculum, embedded into different subjects through critical thinking,” she says.
“The approach needs consistency and it needs, just like with cars and driving, to be safety-focused. The difference is that the road industry has bought into user safety, and even competes on who has the safest car. The tech industry, however, is not doing this.”
Cooney points to the example of Finland, which began to grapple with this problem as far back as 2014 after recognising that Russia was engaged in election interference.
“They decided to upskill all citizens, with a ‘cradle to the grave’ approach, on critical thinking skills so that everyone could engage critically with all media content. They have, subsequently, topped media literacy lists year after year. We are a small country too, and we could do the same,” she says.
This is just one way of bringing about change, Cooney says; regulation and parental education are hugely important, too.
Siobhán O’Donoghue, co-founder and director of Uplift, agrees that a focus on digital literacy in schools is like “trying to close the stable door after the horse has bolted”.
“While digital literacy is important, young people are already quite digitally literate. What they need is not to be sold disinformation and hate,” she says.
“A handful of corporations are manipulating these tools that we use to communicate, connect, organise our lives, learn, shop, work, and access information and news, for their private profit. Algorithms should be turned off by default, and there should be greater transparency on how they work. We need to properly resource the trusted flagger recently established by Comisiún na Meán [the new media regulator]. Otherwise, it won’t work.”
Tanya O’Carroll, a tech policy expert and co-founder of People vs Big Tech, an organisation campaigning for a safer and less exploitative internet, says there is a version of a digital world which can support children to explore their identity and the world around them.
“Why are we expecting individuals to solve the problems of the state?” she asks. “The State has failed to stop private companies from exploiting us. We need brave leadership and policies. And we need to reimagine the role of tech in our lives – and ensure regulation removes these companies’ exploitative practices.”
* This article was updated on 10/12/2024 to correct an editing error
Resources for parents and educators
- CyberSafeKids: Empowering Young Digital Citizens is self-paced course aimed at parents, caregivers, educators and youth workers.
- WebWise.ie: The Irish internet safety awareness centre provides information, advice and resources for schools, families and young people on online safety and digital citizenship.
- Common Sense Media: A US-based non-profit that provides comprehensive and balanced information to help parents make informed decisions about apps, games and other media.
