Headstart Online Resilience Podcast

Welcome to the first episode of our new mini-series for parents! Today, we’re diving into a topic that might seem tricky: sexting. We talk about the law affecting under 18s and share some friendly tips on how to discuss this with your teenagers. We’ll also go over common pitfalls and how to steer clear of them.

If you’re a parent of a teen—or if you know someone who is—give this episode a listen, share it with others, and remember, as we always say here: Don’t Panic!

In the latest episode of the podcast we talk to Dr Laura Higson-Bliss, Lecturer at Law School at Keele University (and one of my PhD supervisors) about online self-harm content, whether it can be regulated, and if so, whether it should be.

As always, we include some practical advice for anyone supporting young people. Laura also mentions some training she did with Mind, you can find details of their training here.

I also mention the Youth Mental Health First Aid training, which you can find out more about here.

In this episode Andy and I chat with Jen Persson from Defend Digital Me about all things Data Privacy. We cover everything from the data that schools collect about students, to the ways they do it and the mysterious process of developing the technology that is used in schools to scan children's finger prints, blood vessels and faces.

Andy and Jen mention the case of Robbins v Lower Merrion School District, in which schools accessed the webcams of their students outside of school hours to monitor their behaviour. You can read more about that here.

Jen also mentions Pippa King, if you want to know more about her work, you can watch her TedX Talk here.

I also mention my website, Packshare, which you can find here.

In this episode we interview another Street - this time a relation - my amazing sister Maddy Street, who works for Prevent and developed some educational resources about tackling misogyny. Maddy shares her experience of talking to young people about the subject, including the highs and lows, along with some great advice for anyone thinking of broaching the subject with groups of young people.

Maddy mentions a few places you can find great resources to discuss misogyny in the classroom, these are:

Votes for Schools - in particular this blog

Facing history and ourselves

ADL (anti-defamation league)

You can also read my short blog on the topic here.

In this episode, Andy and I chat to Johnny Hunt - sex education specialist and senior lecturer in childhood and youth studies. We talk about a range of issues related to sex education and the digital world, including what young people want to know about, what parents and professionals need to know to have conversations about sex with young people and how to discuss the nuance around consent and related subjects.

Johnny mentions a number of resources, the Hedge Porn article is here: https://inews.co.uk/opinion/hedge-porn-stories-vanish-historical-records-1525771

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZwvrxVavnQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1n9Jly3CQ8

https://theconversation.com/how-to-have-sex-why-using-films-to-teach-about-consent-risks-misunderstandings-224677

In this episode Andy and I continue our series of chatting with people from across the Online Harms world. Today we talk to Georgia Street (no relation), from the Revenge Porn Helpline and the Professionals Online Safety Helpline, both run by South West Grid for Learning.

If you want to get in touch with either helplines, their details are below:

Revenge Porn Helpline: call 0345 6000 459 or email [email protected]

Professionals Online Safety Helpline: call 0344 381 4772 or email [email protected]

In this episode, Andy and I chat with Ken Corish about Project Evolve.

Ken mentions a couple of reports which you might want to check out:

Ofcom - Online Nation Report, 2023

Department for Education - Generative AI in Education

In this episode we give our usual brand of straight forward harm reduction advice, this time about gaming. We talk about managing frustration, how worried you should really be about gaming with strangers and whether there's any truth in the idea that staring at a screen will give you square eyes.

If you have any questions about the Digital Resilience project, you can contact me or Andy:

Louisa - [email protected]

Andy - [email protected]

In this episode we discuss the pervasive belief that your phone is listening to you - we tell exactly why your phone doesn't need to listen to you, and give you some tips if you find yourself constantly telling other people that their phones aren't listening to them!

In this episode we talk about responding to online hate and conspiracy theories using the harm reduction approach.

I mention an article in the Conversation which suggests a number of ways to challenge people who believe in conspiracy theories in a supportive way. You can find it here.

I also mention an episode of one of my favourite podcasts: Revisionist History, which is highly recommended if you want to brush up on your debating skills.

Andy talks about a great article by Emily Setty about online misogyny influencers which you can read here.

And finally Andy also mentions a book called The Other Pandemic.