Helping children become more ‘digitally resilient’ needs to be a collective effort if they are to learn how to “thrive online,” according to new research led by the University of East Anglia.
Digital resilience is the capability to learn how to recognise, manage and recover from online risks — such as bullying and inappropriate content — and has the potential to buffer how these experiences may impact young people’s wellbeing. Until now, research has not examined how digital resilience can be built and shown by children beyond focusing on the individual child.
This new study argues that activating digital resilience needs to be undertaken as a “collective endeavour,” involving the child, their parents/carers within home environments, youth workers, teachers, and schools at a community level, along with governments, policymakers, and internet corporations at a societal level.
It finds that digital resilience operates across these different levels, which are critical to help children learn how to recognise, manage, recover and, depending on the support available, grow following experiences of online risks.
Importantly, digital resilience across these levels and areas are not mutually exclusive but reinforce and operate on each other. As a result, say the researchers, collective responsibility must be at the heart of work in this area.
The study focused on digital resilience among pre-teens — those aged 8 to 12 years old, who are transitioning into early adolescence and seeking more independence at home, school, within society and, increasingly, through online experiences.
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