Fear of missing out sees girls stay online despite negativity
That's according to a major survey from Girlguiding
Most girls and young women have experienced some form of online harm but are reluctant to take a break from social media because of so-called "fomo" - fear of missing out - according to a major survey.
The latest Girls' Attitudes Survey from Girlguiding found that more than three-quarters (77%) of girls aged between seven and 21 had experience of an online harm in the past year.
These ranged from mean comments and seeing rude pictures in the younger age group to bullying and harassment for those aged 11 and over.
Experiences of cyberstalking have become more common, rising 6% to 17% of girls aged 11-21, while seeing unwanted sexual images rose 9% to 35% of this age group.
Almost four in 10 girls (38%) aged from as young as seven up to 21 said they had experiences of people pretending to be someone they are not online, an increase of 10%.
With the development and wider rollout of artificial intelligence (AI), girls also reported their worries around safety.
More than half (59%) of 11 to 21-year-olds said they feel concerned that AI may be used to create fake images of them and impersonate them online.
Swan Women's Centre in Liverpool offer trauma-informed mental health and wellbeing services for women and teenage girls, including 'Young Mind Matters' - for 16-25 year-olds who are experiencing mental health challenges such as stress, anxiety or depression.
Jeni Sanders, young person's mental health coordinator at Swan Women's Centre, said:
"We find the report really concerning and really sad. The fact that such a high percentage of girls and young women are experiencing sexism and misogyny and obviously loneliness as a result of that as well.
"We know that when people do experience these things that can have an effect on their mental health and they can have low self esteem as a result of it. They can have decreased confidence and they can become quite withdrawn. They can feel quite alone, like I'm the only one who's going through this and that is all quite damaging for their mental health.
"They're not feeling safe at the moment... and that's really quite concerning"
"We want our young women to feel safe and and this report shows that they're not feeling safe at the moment. There's a high percentage of them that are not feeling safe and that's really quite concerning - and obviously the online aspect, we know that social media does have an impact on our young people's mental health and this report again just shows one of the ways that social media is affecting them.
"77% of girls aged 7 to 21 have experienced online harm, including cyber stalking and unwanted sexual content. That's a really, really high percentage, 77.
"The report has really concerned us and and we find it really quite sad actually that our young women are experiencing such high levels of sexism and misogyny."
Despite the negative experiences, more than half (57%) of 11 to 21-year-olds said they feel reluctant to take a break from social media because of a fear of missing out, commonly known as "fomo".
The fear rises as girls get older, going from 55% of 11 to 16-year-olds to 60% of 17 to 21-year-olds.
Even amid concerns about what they might miss if they do not check in on social media, only just over a third (37%) of girls aged 11-21 said they consider themselves to have strong connections online.
This is down 7% in four years, Girlguiding said.
Ms Sanders added:
"In an ideal world, we'd be like, oh, come off social media, you know, stop looking at it, but that's where they socialise. That's what they do, most of them are on social media nowadays, so for a lot of them coming up off social media is not really an option in their mind - and so we try to provide some education around social media and also just try and build their confidence and self-esteem in other ways and these unhelpful beliefs that may have come from what they've seen on social media.
"We try and challenge them and bring in more helpful beliefs. We do a lot of work around around building their own self-confidence and their self-worth and educating around social media not being real and really emphasising and showing examples of how it's not real and a lot of it is just down to perception.
"We have a group as well. We have a 'Your Mind Matters' group which is peer support because it's 16 to 25 year olds in the group and just having the conversations between them around social media and how it makes them feel and how you know it's not real.
"It really helps them just having them conversations with people their age because it's all well and good me saying that's not good or you know this and that, but when they're hearing the conversations with their own age group it really really does help.
"Also advising them maybe on on choosing what accounts to follow and and helping them to to recognise what accounts are helpful and what accounts are unhelpful, as well as really just working on the self esteem and the confidence and trying to to empower them as well."
The latest annual annual survey, supported by players of People's Postcode Lottery, also found an increase in negative experiences offline.
More girls aged between 11 and 21 reported knowing someone their age who has or had anxiety - at 80% for the latest research, which is up from 72% three years ago.
Some 68% said they know someone who self-harms, up from 65% three years ago, and 62% know someone who has or had an eating disorder, which is up from 58% three years ago.
Six in 10 (59%) of 13 to 21-year-olds have seen or experienced sexual harassment, and 85% of girls aged 11 to 21 said they experience sexism in their daily lives, whether from sexist comments offline (53%) or when they are online (73%).
Girlguiding said these findings appear to be having a knock-on effect on girls' sense of safety, with the proportion of 11 to 21-year-olds feeling less safe because of sexism and misogyny more than doubling in a decade to 47% from 17%.
Chief executive Angela Salt said:
"Sexism continues to be pervasive, leaving many girls feeling vulnerable and unsafe.
"We're glad to see the Government is taking rising levels of misogyny seriously. Now it's been acknowledged as a problem, we are determined to make sure the voices of girls are heard as part of the solution."