Most girls and young women have experienced some kind of online harassment – but most keep using social media because of so-called FOMO (fear of missing out).
Research shows that some 77 per cent of girls aged between seven and 21 have experienced online bullying, seen unwanted sexual images or been victims of cyberstalking in the past year.
But despite this, women and girls are reluctant to take a break from social media because of ‘FOMO’ – fear of missing out – according to the Girls’ Attitudes Survey from Girlguiding.
Some 35 per cent of girls aged 11 to 21 report seeing unwanted sexual images – an increase of nine percentage points since last year – while 17 per cent said they had experiences of online stalking.
Worryingly, almost four in 10 girls aged seven and over said they had experienced people pretending to be someone they are not online, an increase of 10 per cent.
Girls also said they were worried about their safety online with the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, with 59 per cent concerned that AI may be used to create fake images of them.
However despite their negative experiences online, more than half of 11 to 21-year-olds said they keep using social media because of a fear of missing out, commonly known as ‘fomo’.
The survey of 2,734 girls and young women also found that 80 per cent know someone their age with anxiety, an increase of eight percentage points in three years.
Some 68 per cent said they know someone who self-harms and 62 per cent know someone who has or had an eating disorder, the survey found. Six in 10 of 13 to 21-year-olds have experienced sexual harassment, while 85 per cent of girls said they experience sexism in their daily lives.
Girlguiding said these findings appear to be having an 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 per cent.
Girlguiding chief executive Angela Salt said: ‘Sexism continues to be pervasive, leaving many girls feeling vulnerable and unsafe.‘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.’