Preserving children’s online safety is everyone’s responsibility
10 March 2025, 17:01
The digital threats to children are ever-changing.
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And both parents and society as a whole are right to be concerned over how best to protect children online, especially whilst at the same time allowing for trust, independence and privacy.
Naturally, parents consider themselves the first line of defence against negative online experiences—more than three-in-four agree they should shoulder responsibility for educating kids about protecting themselves online. But their effectiveness is limited by a lack of alignment to (virtual) reality.
An ExpressVPN survey found that parents identified bullying and grooming as the main threats facing children online (59% and 45% respectively). In the same survey, children cited “interacting with somebody that was rude or swearing at them” as the leading cause for disturbance (34%), demonstrating a disconnect between children’s experiences and adult perceptions. Without this being addressed, introducing effective digital safeguards is difficult.
But the buck doesn’t stop solely with parents to create safer online environments. This is where Big Tech’s laissez-faire attitude towards enforcing the rules can be particularly frustrating.
Most social platforms require users to be aged 13 or over—but children as young as four have been documented spending an average of 21 minutes on these sites each day. Meta attracted criticism after it “disabled only a fraction” of the 1.1 million Instagram accounts reported since 2019 for underage users. Even more concerning is the platform’s recent decision to bypass parental consent and harvest younger users’ sensitive information—including email addresses and location data.
Some would point to the government as an additional line of defence. In some instances, authorities pull their weight to great effect—like the UK watchdog’s investigation into TikTok’s use of kids’ personal information. Unfortunately, even regulatory bodies aren’t exempt from making the wrong choice: excessive interference can cause more harm than good, regardless of intentions. This was the case in the UK when Apple recently decided to scrap its highest level of encryption, Advanced Data Protection (ADP), following demands from the government to access user data—something it is now fighting in court.
So, what’s the solution? For parents, education should remain the priority. Embracing honest, transparent conversations about online dangers is the catalyst to fostering a generation of digital natives that can identify the red flags—and understand how to navigate these challenges. However, it takes a village to raise a child, and their online safety hinges on all the relevant elders pulling together. That means Big Tech implementing the necessary digital safeguards, and the government enforcing regulations without overstepping boundaries.
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Lauren Hendry Parsons is Vice President of Communications & Advocacy at ExpressVPN.
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