The Wireless Report 2021:
Welcome to The Wireless Report 2021, one of the UK’s most comprehensive reports into the ways in which young people aged 13-25 are currently engaging with and using social media and technology. As part of our Annual Bullying Survey in 2020, we asked young people in the UK to tell us about their relationship with technology, social media and the issues that affect them the most. This report is a follow up from our original Wireless Report in 2014 and it uncovers new facts and figures surrounding the rates of what young people engaging in and feel on a daily basis.
The insights are gathered from over 13,000 respondents across the country, and focus on behaviours online such as time spent on platforms, selfies and drawing comparisons between oneself and other social media users. As well as individual experiences online such as consent, unwanted attention and the need for moderation online.
If you are interested in finding out more or would like to work with our national anti-bullying charity, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Headline statistics:
- 4-in-10 have experienced online abuse
- 1 in 4 children have received an unwanted sexual message or image from a stranger online with 21% saying that they were at least 10 years older than them
- Only 15% believe that the social networks and apps they use have sufficient moderation
- 4-in-10 rarely disconnect from social media and say they use it constantly throughout the day
- 2% of under 18s have over 100k followers on social media, with 1-in-5 aspiring for this level of digital popularity
- 8-in-10 children have followers online that they don’t know in real life
- 15% of young people take selfies at least several times every day
- 1-in-5 regularly compare themselves, their success and their happiness to the people they follow online
- 8-in-10 young people don’t tell their parents about everything that happens to them online with 22% telling their parents hardly anything
- 1-in-4 want their parents to stop posting photos of them online because it makes them feel embarrassed
- 1-in-3 young people wish their parents would spend less time online and more time with them
