All young people, including those who are LGBTQ+ and those who are not, should be supported to browse the internet safely – there are inherent risks for all young people, and for LGBTQ young people these can include exposure to inappropriate content or bad advice around exploring their sexual orientation and identity.
The internet is a powerful tool for your child to explore what they love, complete school activities, connect with friends, and understand the issues that affect the world around them.
Alongside the obvious benefits that browsing the internet offers to all children and young people, there are some specific benefits that can help to empower an LGBTQ+ child or young person, including:
Access to LGBTQ+ specific websites and news outlets that report on many positive news stories relating to being LGBTQ+ from around the world, something that mainstream news outlets often do not show.
Access to support communities and advice that could help them to navigate early relationships, come out to friends and relatives and remain safe.
Understanding and engaging in online campaigning that will help them develop a sense of community with like-minded people and their awareness of issues that affect them.
Being able to explore more generally their interests and what makes them who they are outside of their sexual or romantic orientation or their gender identity.
As with any activity online, unsupervised and unrestricted browsing online does come with risks for any child or young person. However, for a LGBTQ+ child or young person, there are some specific issues that could arise including:
Whilst it is important for your child or young person to engage with current affairs, reading information about anti-LGBTQ+ campaigns or policy could start to impact their long-term confidence and feelings of safety.
Due to a lack of LGBTQ+ sex education in schools, a lot of teens and young people within the community turn to the internet to educate themselves on how to navigate sex and relationships. This could result in them seeing inappropriate content that could impact their view of sex and relationships in the future, their body image, and self-esteem.
There is a lot of information out there, but many children and young people may not be able to discern the fact from fiction and good advice from advice that could be harmful to them. LGBTQ+ children and young people are more likely to use the internet to find answers to specific questions, especially if they do not have access to a community offline. As such, they are at a greater risk of exposing themselves to more harmful content.
Even though the UK has recently acted to ban all conversion therapy practices, there is still a lot of information online regarding gay conversion therapy. As such, LGBTQ+ children and young people have been known to seek out a ‘cure’ for their sexuality, especially if they lack a support community offline. These resources are extremely dangerous, often advocating for dangerous or untested medications and self-harm as a means of ‘curing’ sexuality.
It is important to be aware that:
Giving children and young people the space to thrive online while managing potential risks they face can be more challenging as they become more active online. Other challenges include:
Allowing your child or young person to explore aspects of their sexuality and stay in touch with who they are is an extremely important area of internet use for LGBTQ+ children and young people. Cutting this off could impact their ability to understand their sexuality, something that many LGBTQ+ children and young people struggle with.
There may be some cultural or religious expectations on your child from their school environment, in the home, or within the community in which you live. As such, they may have developed beliefs that conflict with their sexual orientation. There are faith groups that are open and accepting of LGBTQ+ people and it’s important that they know where they can find these groups. More information can be found here.
Helping them understand fact from fiction and the dangers of fake news and inappropriate advice can be a difficult task, especially when so much of it is hard for even the most educated of adults to understand.
Pornography and the sexualisation of LGBTQ+ people can be a difficult topic for anyone to talk about and opening this discussion with your child could be an uncomfortable situation.
It is not feasible to cut them off from technology and browsing altogether, given the volume of schoolwork that involves internet access.
LGBTQ+ world issues
Even in 2020, there are still many places in the world that are not accepting of LGBTQ+ people, and often this finds its way into the headlines. Having an open discussion with your child about this is important in order to ensure they feel safe and are aware of measures they may need to take when travelling. Key things to think about before having this conversation with them include:
It is important to remember that the internet is a powerful and incredibly useful tool for children and young people, despite the dangers that might be worrying you. Opening the conversation on some of the potential areas of risk is important, in order to make sure you are both on the same page, but it is important to strike a balance between making them aware of the dangers without scaring them off using the internet to explore who they are.
Here are more practical things that you can do to help them manage what they see online and find content that will benefit their wellbeing and help them thrive in their digital world.
If you are concerned about your child viewing pornography online, parental controls and filters are a simple way to block out this content to avoid them stumbling across it but ensure to combine this with a conversation as filters may not block out everything.. t They will get taught about safe sex as part of their PSHE in school, but this is mainly geared towards heterosexuality and there may be some gaps for LGBTQ+ young people that might be up to you to fill, so be prepared for any questions they may have.
There are lots of sites, online magazines and news outlets that are built around or incredibly supportive LGBTQ+ people. Find some of these and recommend them to your child as a means of exploring their identity and connecting with LGBTQ+ issues without risking them being exposed to incredibly negative, harmful or scary headlines.
One of the best ways to protect your child is for you to be present for them. Let them know that you are there to have an open and honest discussion with them about what they see online, and that you will do so without judgement. It is about guiding them in the right direction and building healthy online habits, not about punishing them for making bad decisions.
Obviously, this might be an uncomfortable topic for you to approach with your child, and one that should be tackled in an age-appropriate way. If your child is younger, this might not even be something that you feel is necessary to cover, but for teenagers, this is something they are much more likely to be exposed to. There are some things to consider when opening the conversation on this topic, including:
We appreciate this is easier said than done, but if you are obviously uncomfortable during discussions of sex and exploring sexuality, this attitude is something that your child is likely to absorb.
Exploring this side of themselves (providing they are of legal age), and if you are visibly awkward, this could impact their view of sex and relationships in the future.
You are not accusing them of looking at pornography or of doing anything wrong, but rather opening the conversation so they feel they can talk to you about anything they have seen that makes them feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
Think about how you can support them to meet that need in a healthier way. For example, if they’re curious about what sex involves, are there age-appropriate and factually correct resources they can look at to help answer their questions? If they feel pressured by age peers because ‘everybody’s doing it’, have a conversation with them about how it’s normal to feel those pressures but important to respect their own and others’ boundaries and the law.
Fake news can be difficult for anyone to navigate, especially for minority groups. This is because they are often the subject of fake news, and it can leave them and those in their lives vulnerable to believing lies about themselves or their loved ones. Not only is fake news an issue, but there is a lot of useless or harmful advice on the internet that those who are not well educated in that particular area might decide to follow.
Educate yourself. Make sure you know how to spot fake news, and teach them the signs.
Discuss with them what kind of things they are browsing the internet and try to understand what problems they might be trying to solve with it.
Identify with them the kind of support or advice that comes from reliable sources, and where to find these sources. For example, try to discourage them from finding advice on sites like Reddit or other similar forums as they are not moderated and can often contain potentially harmful advice.
Contacting the National Crime Agency CEOP Command
Setting up for success to help children browse safely onlinene
Here are more practical things that you can do to help them manage what they see online and find content that will benefit their wellbeing and help them thrive in their digital world.
If you are concerned about your child viewing pornography online, parental controls and filters are a simple way to block out this content to avoid them stumbling across it but ensure to combine this with a conversation as filters may not block out everything. They will get taught about safe sex as part of their PSHE in school, and it was recently announced that LGBTQ+ education must now legally form part of this education. However, there may still be some gaps for LGBTQ+ young people that might be up to you to fill, so be prepared for any questions they may have.
There are lots of sites, online magazines, and news outlets that are built around or incredibly supportive LGBTQ+ people. Find some of these and recommend them to your child as a means of exploring their identity and connecting with LGBTQ+ issues without risking them being exposed to incredibly negative, harmful, or scary headlines.
These sites are a good starting point:
News and Current Affairs
Pink News
Reporting on LGBTQ+ specific current affairs issues
Buzzfeed
Young Person-friendly news reporting
Support and Further Information on LGBTQ+ Issues
Ditch the Label
International Anti-Bullying Charity
Young Stonewall
Support and Information on issues affecting young LGBTQ+ people
The Trevor Project
US-based supporting LGBT Youth
One of the best ways to protect your child is for you to be present for them. Let them know that you are there to have an open and honest discussion with them about what they see online and that you will do so without judgment. It is about guiding them in the right direction and building healthy online habits, not about punishing them for making bad decisions.
Making the internet safer and more inclusive
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