Digital Resilience Resources for Professionals

The Digital Resilience tool labels behaviours as Not Applicable, Not Harmful, Potentially Harmful and Harmful. See below for explanations of each category.

Not Applicable

We have classed some behaviours for the youngest age group as ‘not applicable’ as a child this age would not be expected to be able to engage in this behaviour.

Not harmful

These behaviours are normal and can be considered low risk for the young person and people around them. Young people will interact with the online world in a variety of ways whilst also having a range of interests and activities outside of it, including interacting with their peers offline. Young people should enjoy the activities they engage in online. As they grow older, they will be more private about their online activities; they may increasingly use technology to organise their social lives. Young people may interact with adults through appropriate forums such as online games but will mainly interact with peers. For older teenagers some behaviours in this category may conflict with parents’ or professionals’ values but reflect normal adult behaviours.

You can read more about not harmful behaviours here, or listen to our podcast about them here.

Potentially Harmful

The behaviours may indicate a risk of harm to the young person or someone else. Potentially harmful behaviours mean you must have a conversation with the young person (or their parent/ carer depending on their age) to find out more. Potentially harmful behaviours only show that more information is needed to assess the risk of harm, or actual harm to the young person. Once more information is received you should be able to identify whether the behaviour is harmful or not.

You can read more about potentially harmful behaviours here, or listen to our podcast about them here.

Harmful

These behaviours represent a high risk of harm to the young person or other young people. The young person may be doing them compulsively and may experience withdrawal symptoms if the behaviour is stopped or curtailed. They may be a victim of intimidating or humiliating treatment online or may be a perpetrator of this, which could include bribery, trickery or threat of violence. The young person is likely to be highly secretive about their online activities beyond what might be considered a normal desire for privacy. Any behaviour that involves accessing illegal content is a harmful behaviour. If you identify a harmful behaviour you will need to act immediately and offer follow up support.

We have also created a self-guided e-learning course which will explain the law around the digital world relating to young people, explain the tool in more detail and explore how to recognise and respond to behaviours in young people. You can access the training here.

You can read more about potentially harmful behaviours here, or listen to our podcast about them here.

Most of the behaviour young people engage in will fall into the ‘Not Harmful’ category. All of the online activities young people engage in can give you information about the young person’s life interests and concerns, which in turn can help you to engage with a young person, building a warm and understanding relationship. Expressing identity through online behaviour is a normal part of a young person's life. Professionals can sometimes feel intimidated by talk of apps and games that are unfamiliar, and this can lead to being dismissive of activities that are important to a young person’s identity or overreacting to activities that are normal and low risk. This tool avoids naming specific apps or games and instead encourages professionals to use their existing skills and knowledge to respond to behaviours. When a ‘Not Harmful’ behaviour is identified, professionals can offer guidance and support to ensure healthy development continues. This could be through group or one-to-one sessions considering what risks young people might face in future and how they think those risks could be managed (for example, it would be appropriate to discuss with 14-16-year-olds the risks of online dating and to ask them how they might manage these risks).

Where behaviours are not age-appropriate, or represent harm to the young person or others, adults must intervene to help the young person and prevent further harm. We all have a duty to safeguard children and young people. You should refer to your organisations safeguarding policy or report to the police or social services where appropriate. This tool aims to help you identify Harmful behaviours and once identified you should use your safeguarding policy to proceed. We have listed some suggestions of how to respond to Harmful or Potentially Harmful behaviours below, but this does not replace or supersede your organisation’s safeguarding procedures.

When planning how to respond to a Harmful or Potentially Harmful behaviour, consider what support you might need to put in place to help the young person. For example, if a young person is being abusive to other people online, they may need to have an intervention focussed on understanding the consequences of their behaviour, whereas if they have been sharing nude images of themselves they may need some self-esteem work or their whole peer group may need education on the risks and consequences of this behaviour.

Other ways to respond to Harmful or Potentially Harmful behaviours:

• Giving the child or young person information or signposting them to reliable websites

• Giving families information and signposting or referring to services

• Modelling behaviour – such as social media accounts set to private, time away from screens etc

• Helping the young person to identify safe adults they can go to when they have questions

• Discussing precautions and ways of managing risk both on and offline

• Having consistency between home, family, school and community settings

• Having consistently enforced expectations of behaviour

• Extracting the young person from situations where they are causing harm to others