According to the global study conducted by Save the Children and Western Sydney University, almost seventy percent of children interact daily with strangers on social media or gaming platforms, despite recognising this as an activity that compromises their safety.

As incentives for these interactions, the children listed interests like expanding their social network and finding new friends outside their immediate environment. Most children surveyed said they were wary of being contacted by strangers and recognised the most common warning signs such as comments about their appearance or body and fishing for personal information. However, despite children's improved ability to identify harmful contacts online, the number of these interactions has not decreased. On the contrary, the number of grooming incidents has been on the rise worldwide in recent years.

For 22 years, The Finnish hotline Nettivihje, which is run by Save the Children Finland, has combatted child sexual abuse in online environments and raised awareness on the abuse experienced by Finnish children and youth. In recent years, the forms of online child sexual abuse have multiplied and diversified and have become more difficult for children to identify.

"Particularly concerning are the reports coming from children, who describe being offered financial compensation to form relations with unknown others in online environments” says Emma Pösö, an advisor for the Finnish hotline.

Children are not entirely without safety skills online

Children identified various ways to protect themselves against harmful contacts – using privacy settings and strong passwords, blocking contacts and reporting them to platform administrators, and, if necessary, stopping the use of platforms or devices.

"However, what is essential is that the majority of children did not actively use these strategies as part of their own social media activity," says Marjaana Hulkko, an advisor for children’s rights and digital well-being.

Children often felt that platform reporting processes were ambiguous and preferred reporting harmful incidents to their friends instead of using formal reporting tools.

Children call for parents and schools to have an active role in ensuring digital safety

While children reported having the know-how to use media safely, they called for broader societal responsibility to ensure the digital safety of children. They explicitly wanted parents and schools to take on a more active role and show interest in children’s digital lives.

"It is worth noting, that children called for clear and strict rules from adults to protect their safety in digital environments," says Hulkko.

Participants felt that parents didn’t have enough knowledge of the safety challenges faced by children in online environments. At the same time, they emphasised that parents should also understand the positive and well-being-promoting dimensions of different digital environments, such as the importance of social networks. Therefore, children would like to see parents trained on both the benefits and threats of children’s digital environments, as well as be given practical guidance in supporting safer behaviours in these spaces.

Children stressed the importance of media education in schools and insisted that it should be offered to all, regardless of age and place of residence. Strengthening children's digital literacy skills as part of school education was seen as particularly important. As necessary skills, children named the identification of online risks, safe information-sharing practices, learning appropriate and efficient ways to respond to stranger interactions as well as knowing where to go for support.

Media educators – your work is important!

"Although the surveyed children stressed the role and responsibility of technology companies and legislation in improving child online safety, we cannot overestimate the significance of media education in keeping children safe online,” says Hulkko.

"In this crucial work, we at Save the Children Finland want to support all educators, both in schools and within homes," adds Pösö.

The Save the Children Huippula- service provides early childhood education and primary school teachers with easy-to-use, high-quality materials to support media education. The service is free to use, and all learning materials are available to educators in Finnish and Swedish nationwide. For parents, the service provides practical information and tools to support better digital literacy in their families.

The Finnish hotline Nettivihje is a service where anyone can report suspected child sexual abuse material or activity related to child sexual abuse online. The hotline has a separate form tailored for young people (in Finnish) to report their own or a friend's sexual abuse experience. Additionally, the hotline works to ensure that children, carers and professionals working with children have information about child sexual abuse, how to prevent it and how to respond if a child has experienced sexual abuse. 

Find more information about the work of the Finnish Safer Internet Centre, including its awareness raising, helpline, hotline, and youth participation services, or find similar information for other Safer Internet Centres throughout Europe.