Social media safety for young people

A national campaign to support young people to safely navigate social media and prevent violence has been launched.

‘Quit Fighting For Likes’ aims to get young people to think about and discuss attitudes and behaviours around the filming and sharing of violent incidents.

Developed by the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU), YouthLink Scotland and Medics Against Violence (MAV), the new campaign is part of an action plan agreed in the Scottish Government’s Violence Prevention Framework, published in May last year.

It features a short awareness-raising animation, illustrating the digital world where this content can take place and showing an alternative route to switch off from it. A set of memes has also been produced covering a range of messages about why filming and sharing fights is damaging.

Young people helped develop the campaign through focus groups and feedback sessions involving various schools and youth groups, including pupils from Craigmount High School in Edinburgh.

The campaign has been launched as the first annual progress report for Scotland’s Violence Prevention Framework was published – highlighting progress made to help cut violent crime and reduce the harm it causes. Key developments in 2023-24 include:

• the creation, by the SVRU, of a Violence Anonymous group, the first of its kind in Scotland, to help individuals with significant problems turn their lives around

• the extension of MAV’s hospital-based Navigator programme to reach young people in times of crisis, to receive support to steer them away from violence and harm

• YouthLink Scotland’s training and resources provided to more than 700 practitioners across the country to provide young people with key messages on violence and knife crime prevention

Speaking at the launch of the new campaign in Edinburgh, Minister for Victims and Community Safety Siobhian Brown said:

“While social media can play a positive role in young people’s lives, helping them engage with their friends and family, it can also be a platform where violent imagery is spread. This campaign will encourage young people to switch off and not share harmful content.

“Scotland’s Violence Prevention Framework is making encouraging progress with a number of partner initiatives focused on prevention and early intervention so that communities across Scotland remain safe and more people live free from the threat of violence.”

Tim Frew, CEO YouthLink Scotland, the national agency for youth work, said:

“Young people have told us time and time again that they need help to navigate social media. It is crucial that adults who live and work with young people are confident in providing trusting and non-judgemental support.

“As the national agency for youth work, we are proud to have collaborated on this important campaign, embedding a youth work approach to the resources to start the conversation and upskill practitioners working with young people. By working and learning alongside young people, the toolkit supports young people to make informed, positive, and importantly safe, choices online.”

Prof Christine Goodall, Director and Founder of Medics Against Violence, said:

“The use of social media to incite violence is something we couldn’t have anticipated 15 years ago but now we see that regularly along with the sharing of distressing images and videos of violence filmed in places that should be safe, such as school playgrounds and community public spaces.

“As health professionals we recognise the impact that may have on encouraging young people to get involved in violence, risking injury, and the long-term psychological impact on those filmed when their images are shared in the online space, without their consent or knowledge.

“This campaign is important to us because we understand from speaking to young people how conflicted they are about social media and the peer pressure they face to join in with image sharing activities. We wanted to produce something that would reflect their views and would support them to take a stand against activity which is both damaging and pervasive.”

Jimmy Paul, Head of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, said:

“While the majority of young people in Scotland do not engage in the filming and sharing of violent incidents on social media, as part of our research for this campaign we listened to groups of young people about their experience.

“The Quit Fighting For Likes campaign aims to enable young people to look at attitudes and behaviours regarding social media while pointing towards the toolkit to equip those working with young people to help build positive social norms.”

Background

Quit Fighting For Likes campaign.  

The practitioner resources contained within the toolkit are designed to be used in schools and in youth groups by anyone working alongside young people. Each activity has step by step guidance on how to run the activity effectively.

Violence Prevention Framework for Scotland progress report.