Measuring public attitudes, experiences and behaviours in online safety

Introduction

Across a series of large-scale nationally representative surveys, we aim to understand the UK public’s attitudes towards and experiences with key issues in online safety.

Topics that we cover include people’s engagement with safety technology on social media, views on an array of interventions designed to protect people against online misinformation, and the psychological effects of exposure to particular harms online with a focus on understanding demographic differences, such as gender, in how people are affected.

We also track general exposure to online harms and people’s overall concern about witnessing such content.  By collecting data such as age, gender, ethnicity, education and political orientation, we are able to examine key demographic and attitudinal predictors relating to outcomes such as likelihood of exposure to harm, engagement with protective measures, and relevant patterns of online behaviours.