- Internet Matters’ annual “Children’s Wellbeing in a Digital World Index” reveals there has been no reduction in children’s experiences of harm online, and that children in the UK are finding it harder to navigate and recover from the challenges of the digital world.
- The survey shows two in five parents believe that excessive time online is negatively affecting their child’s health, and that the impacts of harm are becoming worse, with parents reporting children feeling increasingly distressed when they encounter graphic content online.
- Over a quarter of children (27%) have been contacted by strangers, around one in five have encountered violent content (22%), and more than 4 in 10 children have encountered false information.
- Parents remain concerned about the impact of screentime on their children’s physical and mental wellbeing. There has also been a doubling in the number of parents reporting how seeing unhealthy body image or eating habits content online has had a negative impact on their children.
- However, the survey also reveals parents are stepping up their digital game and are becoming more aware of their children’s online activities, including what they do online, the games they play, the websites and apps they visit, and who they are interacting with.
Internet Matters, Britain’s leading not-for-profit supporting children and families to keep safe online, is today (Wednesday March 5th) publishing its fourth annual “Children’s Wellbeing in a Digital World” Index.
The survey with parents and children of 1,054 families in the UK is the fourth annual Internet Matters Index, tracking the impact of digital technology on children’s physical, social, emotional, and developmental wellbeing and family life. The Index highlights both the positive impacts of the internet and tech devices on children and families as well as areas of concern.
Today’s report shows that over the past year, both the positive and negative aspects of the online world have intensified for children and families, creating increasingly divided experiences.
The survey’s results reveal a growing sense of unease among children and parents, with the distress caused by online harms impacting on children’s safety and wellbeing. It also highlights how parents are noticing a rise in harms affecting their children and their concerns that these harms are having a greater negative impact.
Key findings from the 2025 Index
- The impact of the internet on wellbeing has become more extreme. Both the positive and negative impacts of time online have increased over the last year.
- Experiences of harm remain stubbornly high, and children’s emotional resilience seems to be weakening. There has been a rise in children choosing to avoid certain platforms because of negative interactions (26% cf. 21% in 2023) and upsetting experiences. This suggests they may be feeling less resilient to the challenges of online spaces.
- Online harms are more upsetting for children. Two-thirds (67%) of children say they experience harm online. Whilst this remains in line with children’s experiences in previous years, children report finding many of these experiences more upsetting or frightening this year.
- Parents feel the impacts of harm are getting worse. Parents think encountering graphic violent content has a more negative impact compared to last year (31% cf. 18%). Similarly, they feel that content promoting unhealthy body image or eating habits is more distressing to their children (27% cf. 13%).
- Fewer children feel safe online. While three quarters (77%) of children still feel safe online, this has dropped over the last year (81%). Fewer children say they feel consistently safe and more report only feeling safe occasionally.
- The most prevalent harm this year is exposure to false information, encountered by 41% of children. Additionally, over a quarter (27%) have been contacted by strangers, around one in five have encountered violent content (22%) and a similar number have experienced receiving bullying, abusive, or upsetting messages and comments from people they don’t know (19%).
- Parents remain concerned about the impact of screen time on their children’s physical wellbeing. Nearly two-fifths (38%) now believe the internet negatively affects their child’s health, a concern that has grown for the second year in a row.
- Vulnerable* children face growing social and emotional strain online. The negative indexes for this group have now risen to their highest ever level since our first Index was published four years ago. Vulnerable children are having more upsetting experiences, such as bullying online.
- The positive impacts of being online still outweigh the negatives across all four dimensions of children’s wellbeing. Children feel that the internet is far more important for various aspects of their social lives than last year, with more children seeing the internet and technology as important for finding supportive communities (50% this year cf. 44% in 2023), meeting good friends (56% cf. 50%) and participating in events (69% cf. 63%).
- Parents are stepping up their digital game: Over the last three years, parents have become more aware of their children’s online activities, including what they do online, the games they play, apps they visit, and who they are interacting with.
- A growing number of parents now consider themselves stricter about their children’s technology use and online time and are using tools and controls to manage time spent online. Parents in the highest socio-economic group are far more likely to manage their children’s online behaviour (23%) compared to those in the lowest socio-economic group (11%).
*Throughout the report we refer to children who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), who receive special educational needs (SEN) support, or who have a physical/mental health condition which requires professional help, as ‘vulnerable’ or as ‘children with vulnerabilities’. We recognise that there are multiple understandings of the term vulnerable, and this definition is for the purpose of this report and year on year comparisons.
Carolyn Bunting, Co-CEO of Internet Matters, responding to the survey, said:
“This year’s survey shows that the negative sides of online life are on the rise – particularly for vulnerable children. It is encouraging that parents are taking action, however experiences of online harm remain stubbornly high, with two-thirds of all children experiencing harm online.
“It is encouraging to see that children are making greater use of the internet to be creative, to stay active and to find community, and parents and children say the benefits of being online for children’s wellbeing continue to outweigh the negatives.
“But we should be alarmed that those negatives are growing faster, that children are feeling more affected and upset by these experiences, and that parents are becoming more worried that excessive time online is negatively affecting their child’s physical and mental health.
“Our Index shows there is still a very long way to go until Britain becomes the safest place in the world for children to be online.
“The Online Safety Act is a welcome and important step forward, and the new legislation can’t come into effect soon enough. Ofcom must now fully exercise its powers and prioritise children’s safety so that they can capitalise on the benefits of being online without coming to harm.”
Online Safety Minister, Baroness Jones, said:
“The internet offers great opportunities for children but as this report shows too many still face harm online. As the Online Safety Act takes effect over the coming months tech companies will have to do more to protect young people from illegal and harmful content.
“Building on this we’re also strengthening research into the effects of screen time on children’s mental health, and will continue to work with Ofcom, organisations like Internet Matters, and families to make the online world safer for the next generation.”