As we celebrate ten years of Internet Matters, it is with great pride that we share some of our achievements over the last decade. In 2014 we set out as a small team with big ideas and a clear goal: To help parents keep their children safe online.
See the work we’ve done towards keeping children safe online in this year’s impact report below.
The digital world has changed a lot since then. Children still use devices like smartphones and tablets to go online, but the places and spaces where they hang out have certainly evolved. Ten years ago TikTok, Fortnite and ChatGPT didn’t exist and Instagram had only 200 million users compared to well over 2 billion today. Young people have embraced these developments and use new technologies and platforms to learn, create and socialise. They see no distinction between their online and their offline life, it’s just life. As parents, carers and the adults who support them, it’s fair to say that we have at times struggled to keep up.
Alongside the enormous benefits the digital world affords young people, its risks have also grown. With more children than ever accessing and sharing content and building relationships online, two thirds of young people tell us that they have had harmful or potentially harmful experiences. So our original goal has never been more important.
Since we launched internetmatters.org with our four founders, BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media O2, we’ve worked with over 20 industry partners over the last ten years and it is the strength of these relationships that allow us to deliver the work and impact you’ll
read about in the report.
We have evolved as an organisation, expanding our resources to also support professionals working with children, and through our research programme, we now deliver insights to industry, policymakers and the wider sector that represent the thoughts and experiences of real families. These insights also drive our many programmes to improve media literacy skills amongst both parents and professionals,
as well as our campaigns to raise awareness of the steps parents can take to protect children and help them have positive experiences online.
The Online Safety Act now makes online platforms more responsible for the safety and wellbeing of their users, especially children, and provides more power to act when they fall short. However, it is still the trusted adult in a child’s life who they will turn to when something goes wrong online.
So, as we move into our eleventh year, we continue to stand with parents to help them navigate an ever-changing digital landscape, to give them the tools and tips they need and to remind them to keep talking to their children about how to stay safe. Because we’re parents too. And together we can make a difference.
Rachel Huggins
Co-CEO, Internet Matters
From campaigns and partnerships to supporting professionals and vulnerable young people, we’re proud to have served the online safety and digital wellbeing needs of families across the UK and beyond.
internetmatters.org has become a destination for parents, carers and teachers, with traffic increasing from 600k visits in 2014 to 11m visits in 2023.
Our campaigns have featured across multiple different media, focussing on a wide range of online safety and digital wellbeing issues, with a common theme of supporting parents to take positive action.
Internet Matters’ partners are instrumental in evolving and developing our resources, and getting our message heard.
Our work to support the most vulnerable in society, who are more likely to experience online harms, has included research and bespoke resources to help navigate a digital world.
My Family’s Digital Toolkit was developed in response to research findings, and offers personalised advice to support children as they grow up in a digital world.
Our unique Digital Wellbeing Index delivers annual insights into the effect of digital technology on children’s wellbeing, including both negative and positive impacts.
Wide ranging support for professionals includes resources and training for Foster Carers, a schools information hub and Digital Matters, our award-winning online learning platform for primary schools.
Internet Matters leads and actively participates in many industry initiatives and working groups, and has twice been invited to give evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees.
We measure our success by actions taken to help keep children safe online, and we are there alongside parents, carers and everyone looking after children every step of the way.
