Consultation with Students and Young People on Digital Safety Experiences

Background

Young people are digital natives, yet their voices are often absent from safety conversations designed to protect them. This consultation recognized that students are not passive subjects needing protection, but active agents whose lived experience is essential for designing effective solutions. By centering youth voices through rigorous research methods, the project generated evidence that challenged adult assumptions, identified what actually works (peer-led solutions over top-down mandates), positioned young people as co-creators of safety, and built the evidence base for youth-centered digital safety programming. This consultation complements teacher training by providing evidence on what students need from educators and showing which student-led approaches have the highest uptake and sustainability.

Objectives

• •Understand the digital experiences, challenges, and risks faced by secondary school students in Osun State
• •Identify what students identify as effective protective factors and peer-led solutions
• •Generate evidence on which approaches to digital safety resonate with youth
• •Position young people as co-designers rather than passive beneficiaries of protection programs

Activities & Methods

• ✓Conducted 32 focus group discussions with students across 28 secondary schools
• ✓Completed 147 in-depth individual interviews exploring digital experiences and risks
• ✓Distributed digital surveys reaching 2,700 students to quantify online behaviors
• ✓Facilitated co-design workshops where students created their own safety solutions
• ✓Piloted the Digital Diary tool for anonymous peer reporting
• ✓Trained 145 Peer Safety Ambassadors as youth champions
• ✓Integrated student insights into school assemblies and peer education programs

Outcomes & Impact

• ★Evidence Report: Comprehensive research document on student digital safety experiences (published and disseminated)
• ★Youth Insights: Identified that peer recommendations trusted 3x more than adult advice on digital decisions
• ★Co-Designed Solutions: Developed 6 student-proposed interventions including SMART rule and Digital Diary
• ★Peer Ambassador Network: Established 145 trained youth leaders with 90% retention rate
• ★Student-created SMART rule: Adopted in 25+ schools as core safety framework
• ★Evidence-informed Approach: Research findings shaped teacher training curriculum
• ★Youth Agency: Students moved from participants to program designers and implementers

Resources from This Project