New Youth Justice Board evidence pack highlights growing online risks facing children and calls for stronger safeguarding
The Youth Justice Board (YJB) has published a new Evidence and Insights Pack warning that children across England and Wales face increasingly complex and overlapping online harms, while calling for improved safeguarding and a more co-ordinated response across public services. The report was published on 25 June 2026.
The evidence pack brings together the latest research, data and examples of practice to improve understanding of the risks children encounter online. Its publication comes as the Government implements the Online Safety Act, plans to ban social media for under-16s by spring 2027, and places greater emphasis on online harms in the recent Youth Justice White Paper. The YJB said it welcomes the planned social media ban but stressed that protecting children will also require trusted adults, effective partnerships and joined-up support both online and offline.
According to the report, children face a broad range of digital harms, including cyberbullying, sexual abuse, radicalisation and exploitation. It also found that exposure to harmful online content and the non-consensual sharing of intimate images have become increasingly normalised among children, with girls disproportionately affected. The evidence further suggests that many children displaying problematic online behaviour have complex needs or have themselves experienced abuse.
The report identifies weaknesses in platform design and limited digital literacy among adults as factors that increase risks and make safeguarding more difficult. It also highlights evidence linking online harms with long-term impacts on children’s wellbeing and, for some children, are directly linked to involvement in offline violence.
While acknowledging that UK-specific evidence remains limited in some areas, the YJB outlines several approaches it believes show promise. These include safety-by-design and teen-by-default platform measures, early intervention that avoids unnecessary criminalisation, improved digital media and gaming literacy for children, parents and professionals, healthy relationships and gender-sensitive programmes, and strength-based interventions that encourage belonging, critical thinking and positive identity building.
The YJB has urged policymakers, commissioners and youth justice partners to use the findings to inform future policy, commissioning, training and operational practice.
Steph Roberts-Bibby, Chief Executive of the Youth Justice Board, said children’s online experiences and the long-term effects of online harm are not yet fully understood. She warned that treating vulnerable children primarily through a criminal justice lens can increase their risk of further harm and deeper involvement in the justice system. Roberts-Bibby also said the Government’s planned ban on social media for under-16s is a positive step, but added that preventing harm and reducing future offending will depend on co-ordinated action across education, health, policing, local government, housing and social care.