Online Safety and Harms
“Online harm” is an umbrella term used to refer to any online activities which may cause harm to individuals or society. As people move between and within digital systems, online harm can easily spill offline and this is reflected in how harm is studied. Our focus in the Institute is primarily on preventing harm. Transcending these domains, research in this theme is both theoretically informed and methodologically rigorous to understand and mitigate online harms and promote well-being. Our work on online safety and harms covers a range of contexts and approaches, including:
Understanding the nature of ‘harm’ in an online context
Mitigating harms in online spaces through design
Virtual Reality and social and psychological outcomes
Social media use and well-being
Online bystanders (and encouraging intervention)
Related current projects:
National Research Centre on Privacy, Harm Reduction and Adversarial Influence Online (https://www.rephrain.ac.uk)
LEAP Digital Health Hub for the South West (https://leap-hub.ac.uk)
Conversational moves and dialogue acts in persuasive communication
Previous projects:
Rapid Review: Increasing Likelihood of Bystander Interventions in Online Environments
International research network for the prevention of Child Abuse with Technology (netCAT)