Social media algorithms are “exacerbating” the vulnerabilities of girls who have additional needs, leaving them exposed to “significant harm”, a new report has warned.
Experts said girls with additional needs (AN) – including special educational needs (SEN) and mental health problems – are being shown content on topics such as self-harm and eating disorders at a higher rate than their peers.
Research from online safety charity Internet Matters, seen exclusively by The Independent, shows 84 per cent of girls have encountered harm online, compared to 75 per cent of their male counterparts. Children with AN are overall significantly more likely to have experienced harm online (79 per cent) than those without (63 per cent), the report found.
Katie Freeman-Tayler, director of policy and research at Internet Matters, said girls with AN are spending more time online than their peers and often report low mood and high anxiety. She said this – coupled with platforms designed to show you more of the content you interact with – can lead to them getting caught in a “cycle” of harmful content.
“Generally, children with additional needs spend more time online, and more time online correlates with exposure to more harmful content,” she said. “Research shows girls with additional needs generally start from a lower level of wellbeing as well.
“Obviously that can inform what you might be looking at online... therefore, when that intersects with platform design as well as the broader societal challenges of what young girls are exposed to, that can exacerbate the amount of harmful content seen.”
The term “additional needs” in the report refers to children who have special educational needs support, who have an education, health and care plan (EHCP) – which are legal documents designed to guarantee support for young people with Send – or who have a mental or physical disability that requires professional support. Campaigners said the term applies to one in five children in the UK.
Girls with AN are exposed to significantly more self-harm content than boys (22 per cent compared to 16 per cent), content that promotes unrealistic bodies (29 per cent compared to 21 per cent), and hateful content, such as sexism (30 per cent compared to 24 per cent). These differences are significantly larger than the differences in the harms experienced by girls and boys without additional needs, the paper’s authors explained.
The wide-ranging research found children with AN are 18 per cent more likely to use AI chatbots than their peers without AN. Of those, 50 per cent said they would have “no concerns” about following advice given to them by a chatbot.
Ms Freeman-Tayler said children with AN often use chatbots for companionship, but can struggle to distinguish between a sycophantic, AI response and a genuine, human response.
Children with AN are also more likely to report that they struggle to control how much time they are spending online, and that they keep watching the same things even when not enjoying them.
They are nearly four times more likely to do something dangerous because of something they have seen online, and around twice as likely to be bullied both by people they know in real life or by strangers, according to the report.
“Children with additional needs spend more time online and they get the best and the worst of online life,” Ms Freeman-Tayler said. “Online is often where they can often feel confident and have a bit of independence.
“But given that heightened emphasis that children with additional needs have on online spaces, I think they are maybe more likely to find it harder to disengage as a result of that.”
Internet Matters is calling on the government and regulator Ofcom to mandate robust age checks which it said is “particularly important” for children with AN whose developmental age may be younger than their biological age.
It also said the government should ensure it is consistently reviewing legislation including the Online Safety Act to ensure all children are being adequately protected.
An Ofcom spokesperson said the regulator’s rules require a “safety-first approach” which includes “tackling harmful algorithms, strong age checks, and stopping children being exposed to the most dangerous content.”
They added tech firms that don’t comply with their duties can “expect enforcement action”.
A government spokesperson said its recent consultation on social media restriction for under-16s has received more than 100,000 responses on issues including the use of AI chatbots.
They added: "We are determined to act quickly because we know the harms facing children online, but we will do so in a way that is effective, enforceable and that works for all children.
"We will set out the government's response as soon as possible, and importantly we already have the powers to act within months rather than years."
