Providing advice and guidance to parents and carers is an important task for many Safer Internet Centres. But what impact do campaigns targeting parents and carers actually have? The Norwegian Safer Internet Centre has recently carried out an evaluation of one of its resources, #letstalkaboutnudes, which provides advice and guidance on sexting.
The campaign #letstalkaboutnudes consists of short videos promoted on Facebook in the summers of 2020 and 2021, and a series of guidelines, tips and further resources available on the Norwegian Media Authority's website.
Summary of the method used
The campaign videos appeared to have a good reach on Facebook, but it was difficult to know whether they were actually reaching the target audience. It was also hard to gather parents' and carers' views on the campaign, including its perceived usefulness and their need for this kind of information and guidance.
To gain a greater understanding of the above, the Norwegian Safer Internet Centre conducted a qualitative survey using in-depth online interviews with ten parents with children aged 13 to 15 from different parts of the country. Prior to the interviews, the participants were sent the campaign videos and a link to guidance materials on the website, to give them an opportunity to reflect on the topic. The same materials were used during the in-depth interviews.
Summary of the interviews
What emerged is that most parents do talk with their children about online nudity and sexting. It can, however, be challenging to do so, and parents and carers seem to need the right opportunity to have the conversation; otherwise, they find it difficult to reach out to their child. This kind of conversation is often perceived as more difficult to have, and to some extent not as necessary, in several families. This is justified based on the child's interests and maturity. Additionally, parents and carers seem to experience gender differences and find that this conversation about sexting and explicit content is more relevant for boys than girls.
The school seems to be the primary source of advice and guidance, especially when linked to specific days or weeks when these topics are on the school agenda, and when parents are involved in the activities. In some municipalities, the police, child welfare services, and other agencies regularly visit schools for this purpose. In addition, sex education classes can be an opportunity to introduce this topic of conversation within the family. Parents and carers additionally pointed to several sources and websites that they considered particularly relevant or useful, but the Norwegian Media Authority was not among them.
The #letstalkaboutnudes campaign was generally perceived as useful to parents and carers to help with “having the talk”. The campaign also appeared to be innovative, as none of those surveyed had previously seen either the campaign videos or the guidelines. The parents described the videos as fun, and a useful reminder to talk to young people. However, they also found that the use of symbols was somewhat confusing and this impacted the clarity of the messages. They also recommended wider use of vocabulary, so that both adults and youth could equally understand the messages. Furthermore, they suggested that the website guidelines should be linked to the videos.
While they found the resources useful, the respondents also recommended shortening them and making them more easily accessible. They considered the campaign as a whole to be accurate but believed it has not reached the intended target group due to the channels chosen for its promotion. Therefore, the resources remained a hidden secret.
Advice
The evaluation was carried out by Mindshare Norway on behalf of the Norwegian Safer Internet Centre (SIC). The following advice was given to the SIC regarding any further work with this and similar campaigns:
- The campaign deserves a larger audience. Both the campaign videos and the website guidelines should be disseminated via other channels and websites other than the ones previously used. Parents and carers need to be reached in channels that they regularly use.
- The links between the campaign videos and the website resources should be strengthened. Without a direct link to the website content, the two tools do not appear to be part of the same campaign.
Find out more about the work of the Norwegian Safer Internet Centre, including its awareness raising, helpline, hotline and youth participation services, or find similar information for Safer Internet Centres throughout Europe.
Providing advice and guidance to parents and carers is an important task for many Safer Internet Centres. But what impact do campaigns targeting parents and carers actually have? The Norwegian Safer Internet Centre has recently carried out an evaluation of one of its resources, #letstalkaboutnudes, which provides advice and guidance on sexting.
The campaign #letstalkaboutnudes consists of short videos promoted on Facebook in the summers of 2020 and 2021, and a series of guidelines, tips and further resources available on the Norwegian Media Authority's website.
Summary of the method used
The campaign videos appeared to have a good reach on Facebook, but it was difficult to know whether they were actually reaching the target audience. It was also hard to gather parents' and carers' views on the campaign, including its perceived usefulness and their need for this kind of information and guidance.
To gain a greater understanding of the above, the Norwegian Safer Internet Centre conducted a qualitative survey using in-depth online interviews with ten parents with children aged 13 to 15 from different parts of the country. Prior to the interviews, the participants were sent the campaign videos and a link to guidance materials on the website, to give them an opportunity to reflect on the topic. The same materials were used during the in-depth interviews.
Summary of the interviews
What emerged is that most parents do talk with their children about online nudity and sexting. It can, however, be challenging to do so, and parents and carers seem to need the right opportunity to have the conversation; otherwise, they find it difficult to reach out to their child. This kind of conversation is often perceived as more difficult to have, and to some extent not as necessary, in several families. This is justified based on the child's interests and maturity. Additionally, parents and carers seem to experience gender differences and find that this conversation about sexting and explicit content is more relevant for boys than girls.
The school seems to be the primary source of advice and guidance, especially when linked to specific days or weeks when these topics are on the school agenda, and when parents are involved in the activities. In some municipalities, the police, child welfare services, and other agencies regularly visit schools for this purpose. In addition, sex education classes can be an opportunity to introduce this topic of conversation within the family. Parents and carers additionally pointed to several sources and websites that they considered particularly relevant or useful, but the Norwegian Media Authority was not among them.
The #letstalkaboutnudes campaign was generally perceived as useful to parents and carers to help with “having the talk”. The campaign also appeared to be innovative, as none of those surveyed had previously seen either the campaign videos or the guidelines. The parents described the videos as fun, and a useful reminder to talk to young people. However, they also found that the use of symbols was somewhat confusing and this impacted the clarity of the messages. They also recommended wider use of vocabulary, so that both adults and youth could equally understand the messages. Furthermore, they suggested that the website guidelines should be linked to the videos.
While they found the resources useful, the respondents also recommended shortening them and making them more easily accessible. They considered the campaign as a whole to be accurate but believed it has not reached the intended target group due to the channels chosen for its promotion. Therefore, the resources remained a hidden secret.
Advice
The evaluation was carried out by Mindshare Norway on behalf of the Norwegian Safer Internet Centre (SIC). The following advice was given to the SIC regarding any further work with this and similar campaigns:
- The campaign deserves a larger audience. Both the campaign videos and the website guidelines should be disseminated via other channels and websites other than the ones previously used. Parents and carers need to be reached in channels that they regularly use.
- The links between the campaign videos and the website resources should be strengthened. Without a direct link to the website content, the two tools do not appear to be part of the same campaign.
Find out more about the work of the Norwegian Safer Internet Centre, including its awareness raising, helpline, hotline and youth participation services, or find similar information for Safer Internet Centres throughout Europe.
- sexting
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