Prof Michelle Butler & Prof Dirk Schubotz, School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, Queen’s University Belfast
This presentation aims to inform Assembly consideration of statutory and non-statutory efforts aiming to reduce children and young people’s exposure to illegal and harmful behaviour on social media, including Assembly deliberations regarding the forthcoming Victims and Witnesses of Crime Bill. It sets out key findings arising from responses to the 2025 Young Life and Times (YLT) survey, which for the first time had explored 16-year-olds’ experiences in Northern Ireland of illegal and/or harmful behaviours on social media, their help-seeking behaviour and support they had received in schools and elsewhere. YLT is an annual representative survey of 16-year-olds undertaken in Northern Ireland since 2003, which routinely informs the work of agencies in the statutory and non-statutory sector that work with, and behalf of, young people in Northern Ireland and collects data on important policy indicators for The Executive Office, Department of Education, the Department of Justice, the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People and other organisations.
Analysis of those 2025 YLT survey responses were reported in the “Screens, Safety and Social Media” research report – published in September 2025. This presentation synthesises the report’s findings, including that over half of the 16-year-olds surveyed had experienced illegal and/or harmful behaviours on social media. And looking more closely at those identified behaviours, the presentation shows that the most common included the posting/sharing of offensive, indecent or obscene material, the sharing of information without consent and online stalking: with over half of those surveyed feeling competent to deal with such behaviour on social media, while one-third did not.
Beyond the 2025 report, the presentation highlights a follow-on study that is exploring attitudes amongst P7 children and 16-year-olds in Northern Ireland about social media legal restrictions. The research takes place after Australia introduced its severe restrictions for under 16s and similar measures are considered in other countries. The research is explained, including reporting timeframes, with the aim of supporting Assembly considerations in this area.
Date of Seminar: 20 May 2026
Policy Briefing
Presentation
Seminar video will be forthcoming