Byron Review - let's listen to the young people

Dr Tanya Byron's report "Safer children in a digital world" was published today, and the Government, who commissioned the review 6 months ago, welcomed it and committed to respond to its recommendations to ensure that young people are safe online.

The Byron Review looked at the risks to children's safety and wellbeing of exposure to harmful or inappropriate material on the internet and in video games.  The report recognises the need to develop a shared culture of responsibility to reduce and prevent harmful content on the internet, and increase children’s ability to understand and tackle any problems.

There has been a fair bit in the media today on the report's recommendations into the classification of video games.  Indeed a neutral stumbling across the story, might wonder whether this was all the report entailed.  Video games is clearly a key area in the consultation, and people, including us at Beatbullying, have questioned the nature of some inappropriate games in the past.

I can't help but feel, however, that the adult voices are still drowning out the young people, and once again, the Government is listening to the adult voice (questioning video games), and sidelining the young person.  In general, Young people weren't complaining overtly about video games, and most of them said that they knew how to avoid the harmful content on their computer.  Let's give them credit - they choose not to play some video games, and if they stumble across something inappropriate on the net, they can 'click away'.

The key finding of the report is that young people are telling us that cyberbullying is the biggest issue for them.  The big problem is not a parent’s fear of inappropriate material on the web, but direct cyberbullying from other young people, which they feel they can’t avoid as easily or ‘click away’ from.

So the message from the young people is clear: the Government needs to tackle cyberbullying, and it needs to do it now.  Raising awareness is important, and advice on what to do is useful, but the solution must involve young people, giving them the information and tools to tackle the problem themselves.

Beatbullying is about to launch its Cybermentors programme: an online adaptation of our proven bullying prevention model. Thousands of young people will be trained as Cybermentors to help, support and assist young people being bullied online. Young people can take responsibility for bullying, whether it’s happening in school or online, and do something positive to tackle it.

The Government has committed to following the Byron Review's recommendations, so perhaps it will now listen to the young people and tackle cyberbullying?  It could do this by supporting and investing in the practical solution, Cybermentors.  Now that would certainly be a giant step towards keeping young people safe online.

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