Online Safety Weekly Update – 12th November 2025

Article – We’re Not the Anxious Generation

As this weekly newsletter finds its way into your Inbox I will be in a wonderful school that I’ve visited many times before, this time speaking to Y13 students.

I’ve been an online safety consultant for a long time, I know technology, I know the risks and concerns, I know what the curriculum asks us to deliver, I specialise in certain areas, which means more often than not I know the talks I need to deliver to particular age groups: what’s current, what’s topical? But equally (and perhaps more) important is the voice of the student:

• What are their concerns?
• What would they like me to talk about?

Often I will ask schools to engage with their students beforehand. This can be useful in a number of ways including:

• I need something to grab their attention, so having their questions and concerns allows me to thread support and advice into a talk.
• But equally important, their online lives are changing, their concerns are changing, the questions I’m receiving are changing. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the questions/concerns are around generative AI.

A few days ago I read an article written by Maximilian Milovidov, a youth online safety advocate studying psychology, who is also a TikTok Youth Council member and a former Youth Ambassador to the Children’s Commissioner for England. In his article, Maximilian states that there’s a growing chorus saying phones are “breaking childhood.” He pushes back on this: young people’s experiences are mixed, and the impact of tech depends far more on how it’s used than overly-simplistic things like screen-time totals. 

Crucially, he calls out how often adults talk about young people rather than with them. When we invite students into the conversation, especially those who are more vulnerable or whose voices are easily missed (SEND, care-experienced, LGBTQ+ students, we discover important nuance: for some, online spaces are genuine lifelines for identity, support and belonging. 

We all know this, but do we practice it? For example, in youth councils and peer-led groups is there wide representation? Are there students who can raise concerns and ask questions that others may not have thought about? After all, these are the most vulnerable children, their voice needs to be heard.

You can read the full article, ‘We’re Not the Anxious Generation’ HERE.

Safer Internet Day 2026

SID 2026 is coming fast (Tuesday 10th Feb). It must be my age as it only feels like a few months ago since the last one!! The theme for the upcoming SID is “smart tech, safe choices – exploring the safe and responsible use of AI”.

As always UKSIC will be releasing their free resources in the coming weeks, I will share them with you once they’re ready. You can also get more information and register your support HERE.