‘I wish the the dam internet had never been invented’

If I earned a pound every time I heard those words, I’d be living on an exotic island. However, as I gaze out my window at another grey February sky, that’s not the reality. Yet, when it comes to how young people with additional needs are choosing to communicate with each other and those around them, the internet (hopefully unlike the grey February sky) is here to stay. So much so that, globally, one in three internet users, or about 800 million, are children. In the UK, Ofcom’s State of the Nation 2020 report indicated that, in 2020, young people faced online risks. The available evidence tells a familiar story. Young people with additional needs are more likely to encounter online risks, and these risks can escalate more quickly than for their peers. For instance, research shows that autistic children face significantly more online safety risks and psychological implications than non-autistic children.