Online Harassment is “Part of Normal Life” for Teen Girls Study Reveals

Parents Report Online Harassment As a ‘Standard' Experience for Their Daughters…

Here's a bit of an eye-opener: A recent study highlights that online harassment of girls has become so commonplace that parents hardly find it shocking anymore.

Carolyn Bunting MBE from Internet Matters, a group focused on digital safety who funded the research, is raising alarms about our collective desensitisation to the boundary between acceptable and unacceptable behavior, regardless of whether it's online or in person.

“One parent said that their daughter receiving inappropriate messages from men is ‘so standard it’s not noteworthy’. ”

“It should be an outrage that in 2024 girls continue to experience disproportionate levels of harassment and harmful experiences online. Yet, rather than reducing, we continually see evidence showing girls are experiencing more online harm than ever before,” explains Bunting.

The study reveals that a staggering 77% of young women aged 13 to 16 in the UK have encountered harmful digital content. “Girls, and increasingly parents, have come to accept online harassment and abuse as part of normal life,” says Bunting.

It seems as though a growing number of parents are beginning to view online harassment as just another part of growing up, dangerously close to trivialising it.

Bunting acknowledges that most parents are indeed trying their best to support their children, but she's concerned we're losing sight of a crucial principle: what would be considered wrong in the offline should be considered equally wrong online. Girls should be free to use the internet - where many critical interactions take place, without harassment. “Spending time online is important to girls,” explains the study, 57% of girls aged 13-16 reported “they feel mostly happy when spending time online, especially when connecting with friends and being creative.”

A mother mentioned that receiving inappropriate photos and has become so routine for her 15-year-old daughter that they simply block the sender and move on without much discussion. “Some girls mention being sent ‘dick pics’ on social media and messaging apps. This is so common that one parent said that their daughter receiving inappropriate messages from men is ‘so standard it’s not noteworthy’,” says the study.

“Internet Matters is calling for a public initiative to recalibrate our expectations of online behaviour”

Another parent shared that her 17-year-old daughter Isabelle has been approached by older men offering to be her "sugar daddy" on her Instagram modelling account. “These requests make her feel really uncomfortable, because she knows she looks young on her account,” says the report. Isabelle recalls one time seeing a video of 12-year-olds dancing and “people saying sexual things in the comments.”

This information comes from in-depth interviews with teenage girls and their parents conducted by BMG Research between November 2023 and January 2024.

In response, Internet Matters is calling for a public initiative to recalibrate our expectations of online behaviour and urging Ofcom to provide updated guidelines to reduce risks for women and girls online.

This effort follows a disturbing report from the Internet Watch Foundation, which found that over 90% of child sexual abuse material online consisted of images extorted from victims, some as young as three years old.

Despite the passage of the Online Safety Act intended to curb illegal and harmful content online, a parliamentary committee has indicated that the full benefits might not materialise until 2026 due to implementation delays, underscoring the urgency of addressing these issues sooner rather than later.

This report shows that teenage girls are experiencing online harm at scale and according to them “more so than younger girls, and more so than boys.”

Teenage girls find themselves ensnared in a dilemma: to withdraw from the digital realm and endure the isolation that follows, or to remain and suffer the detrimental effects that linger within these spaces.