Are Children Digitally Safe?

By Brandy Lesline

Every morning, millions of children wake up and reach for a screen before they ever say good morning to their families. A tablet, a phone, a laptop , the digital world has become as ordinary to today's child as a backyard was to a previous generation. And yet, for all its wonder, it carries dangers that many parents, schools, and policymakers are only beginning to understand. The question we need to sit with, honestly and urgently, is this: are our children actually safe in the digital world?

The honest answer, I believe, is no , at least not consistently, and not without far more intentional effort than we are currently making. That is not a criticism of technology itself. The internet has given children access to learning, creativity, and connection that would have seemed extraordinary a generation ago. But access without protection is not opportunity. It is exposure.

Consider the sheer range of what children encounter online. Cyberbullying remains one of the most persistent and damaging threats. Unlike the schoolyard taunts of years past, online harassment does not end when the school bell rings. It follows a child home, into their bedroom, and into the quietest corners of the night. Research continues to link cyberbullying to anxiety, depression, and in the most devastating cases, self-harm. And yet many platforms still struggle to enforce meaningful protections for young users, relying instead on reporting tools that place the burden squarely on the child being victimized.

Then there is the issue of predatory behaviour. Grooming, exploitation, and the manipulation of children by adults online is not a rare edge-case tragedy , it is a documented, widespread problem. Predators exploit the very features that make platforms appealing to children: direct messaging, anonymous profiles, and the powerful pull of feeling seen and heard. A child who feels misunderstood at home is particularly vulnerable to the kind of false belonging that a predator is skilled at manufacturing.

Beyond these more visible threats, there is also the quieter harm of algorithmic design. Many platforms are built not with child wellbeing in mind, but with engagement metrics that benefit advertisers. Recommendation systems feed children increasingly extreme content because outrage and shock hold attention longer than calm. Children are not yet equipped with the critical thinking tools to recognize when they are being led somewhere harmful, and we should not expect them to be. They are children. That is precisely the point.

So where does responsibility lie? With everyone, and that is not a deflection. Parents must engage rather than simply restrict. Children who are blocked without explanation find ways around blocks. What they need instead is conversation ongoing, non-judgmental dialogue about what they are seeing, who they are talking to, and how they are feeling. Schools must integrate digital literacy into their curriculum the same way they teach reading and arithmetic, because navigating the internet safely is no less essential a life skill.

But individual effort is not enough. Tech companies must be held to a higher standard through meaningful regulation. Age verification that actually works. Algorithmic transparency. Stricter penalties for platforms that knowingly expose children to harmful content. We regulate what children can watch on television, what toys can be sold to them, even what food can be marketed to them. It is not radical to demand the same thoughtfulness for the platforms that now consume so much of their time and shape so much of their inner world.

I am not arguing that we should shelter children from the internet. That ship has sailed, and frankly, the digital world offers children too much of genuine value to simply remove. What I am arguing is that children deserve to inherit a digital landscape that was designed with their safety as a priority, not an afterthought. Right now, that is not the world we have built for them. And until it is, we owe them more vigilance, more advocacy, and more honest conversation than we have been giving.

Our children are growing up online whether we are ready or not. The real question is whether we will meet them there.