Better Internet for Kids

This report sets out a generic model for understanding how online harms manifest. This research aimed to test a framework, developed by Ofcom, with real-life user experiences. We wanted to explore if there were common risks and user experiences that could provide a single framework through which different harms could be analysed. 

Online harm is a complex and nuanced issue. Ofcom is in the process of carrying out research and developing its evidence base to understand, amongst other things, the mechanisms by which online content and conduct may give rise to harm, and the impact of online harm on users. One of the ways Ofcom has approached this has been to work up a general framework that differentiates cause, effect and risk factors:

• Hazards (potentially harmful content / contact): The stimuli that are a potential source of harm – e.g. images, videos, messages;
• Risk factors: Things that change the likelihood that a hazard will cause harm to an individual;
• Harm: The negative consequence for someone resulting from a hazard combined with risk factors.Not all potentially harmful content / contact will go on to cause harm, and the role played by risk factors iscrucial to understanding how and why online harms do or do not occur. 

Ofcom has developed a model that seeks to categorise and describe these risk factors and determine their role in why harm does or does not occur.