Children with disabilities need better help to manage their online lives and potential risks, according to new research published by the University of East England (UEA) in the UK and published in the journal “New Media and Society”.
For children with disabilities, being online and part of a well-connected community can have immense benefits, but they also pose a greater risk online, as they may escape more quickly than their peers.
Research shows that growth professionals such as teachers, youth workers and speech therapists are not always available when children learn, play and interact. It also highlights how this ability of children with disabilities affects access or supports digital resilience from this community of professionals.
Digital resilience means the ability to learn to identify, manage and recover from dangerous online experiences, such as bullying, sexual messaging, misinformation, and increasingly important processes in an increasingly connected world.
The study, involving researchers from the University of Liverpool, concludes that teachers need to support children with disabilities to better support their connected lives in order to promote the resilience of the digital community and tackle digital inequalities.
The conclusions come as the latest draft of the Online Security Act nears the end of its parliamentary process. While this landmark legislation will place greater responsibility on tech companies to keep more users, including children, safe, it is widely accepted that it will not be able to eliminate all risks from online life.
This highlights the need to improve user education about online risks, especially for vulnerable groups such as children with disabilities.
The lead author of the study, Dr Simon P. Hammond, from the UEA School of Education and Lifelong Learning, states that “educators spend a disproportionate amount of time dealing with unexpected events related to child protection and/or emergency disciplinary problems, which is a major contributor to high and stressful that workload.
Dr Jeanette D’Arcy, from the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Liverpool, comments: “Education professionals need help to invest their time in creating and maintaining the kinds of relationships in their communities that help them provide the best support to this group.”
“The real time of delivery of structural holes, gaps between various professionals surrounding children with disabilities, likely to pay dividends elsewhere,” adds Dr. Hammond. “Relatedly, supporting other community members is also key to promoting children’s digital resilience.
“This means that children with disabilities have more support in learning to identify, manage, and respond to risky online experiences, increasingly a role for all citizens,” he continues. “For communities to be more than the sum of their parts, the responsibility; it must be diffused, but collective ownership. A thorny but not impossible task, which will probably pay off.
In his view, “despite the best learning through concrete experiences, children with disabilities receive fewer opportunities to learn helping to build the difficulty of the difficulty. Finally, professional communities are least likely to provide the support they provide to the most needy group.”
Previous research has focused on building digital resilience at the individual level, but the impact of the community networks that surround them has been under-researched.
Dr Gianfranco Polizzi, from the University of Liverpool, highlights “the paper’s findings highlight that professionals need to examine community resources and assets and “connectors”, providing active access to a wide range of assets and resource management pools to build digital resilience. for the community, as well as for individuals”.
Research was conducted by Internet Matters, an organization that provides resources, information and support to keep children safe. Simone Vibert, director of policy and research, highlights that the data “consistently shows that children who are vulnerable offline, including because of failure, are also vulnerable and need specific support to increase their resilience. This research document points to the critical role of professionals in providing this support.
“Teachers and other professionals have a high influence on the lives of children, and there is an opportunity to fail if this authority is not tied to help children to navigate the dangers online, so that they can enjoy the advantages of technology. They are connected more securely. “The Internet reality welcomes this. to report and is mandated to do its bit to help the professionals who need the help of the children in their online lives.”
The research included 30 semi-structured web interviews with professionals who support the education, growth and wellbeing of children with disabilities across the UK, including teachers and youth workers.
