We marked Safer Internet Day this afternoon by asking a selection of (mostly Year Six) children to give us some insight into their online lives. We first asked them to celebrate all that was good about being able to be online, and to outline all the great things they enjoy doing.

The word cloud below gives an indication of the weighting of each of the tools highlighted in their work.

As you will see there was a wide range of tools in use, with the popular messaging apps coming out strongest, in addition to YouTube.

We then asked the children to outline some of the reasons for using the tools. A selection of explanations follow.

• I like YouTube because I watch my friends’ channels
• I like TicToc because you can make silly short clips
• I like YouTube because there are lots of fun videos
• I like WhatsApp because you can chat to friends that don’t have Apple phones
• I like SnapChat because you can make lenses and faces
• Facebook is for old people – they post pictures of you round the world
• WhatsApp is great for group chats
• I like WhatsApp because you can chat when you are bored
• Google is great for helping with your homework
• On WhatsApp I can message my friends and organise fun activities without disturbing my parents
• I watch YouTube at night when my Mum is watching her stuff so I go to my room
• I like Snapchat to talk to my friends in Year Six and my football team
• Ebay is good because it is any easy way to sell unwanted things for a good price
• I like Snapchat for all the filters
• WhatsApp is incredible because you can communicate with friends all across the world in one group
• I like WhatsApp because you can make group chats and stuff

We finished up by asking the respondents to assess and describe any concerns they may have in using any of these tools. To our surprise (perhaps as adults) they found it very difficult to see many downsides, despite having had a full four-week social media module in Year Five. With a little prompting, there were some comments expressing concern (mostly related to the non-specific fear of ‘being hacked’).

• People sending me jokey messages
• When you search something on Google and something completely different turns up
• Getting cyber-bullied
• Getting hacked
• You could post a public photo and somebody could find out where you live. You could post a picture of yourself in school uniform and someone could come to your school
• Someone could pretend to be someone they are not
• Fortnite might be addictive
• A guy came up to me in Roblox and asked me how old my Dad was
• On one of our social media groups, some people tend to swear at and insult others
• Getting hacked and losing my money

Finally we took the opportunity to remind children about how to stay safe online. Given the prevalence and popularity of messaging apps (some of which carry a recommendation that users should be 16 years of age), we reminded children that most messages, however bland or innocent, could be interpreted differently by some recipients. We also pointed out that although there were things that no child would dream of saying to someone on the playground, apparently it was fine to type it into a message – potentially one seen by many others. We also suggested that the need for care was even greater online, given the ease with which users and their parents can screenshot or print out messages, and ultimately how easy it is to track a user’s history online.