Kim Barker & Olga Jurasz (The Open University)
The Protecting Girls from Online Harm: an inner-city exploration (PGOH) project aims to address the challenge of protecting young people (under 18) from online harms (including, but not limited to: racist, sexist, fundamentalist, self-harm content; sexual harassment, cyberbullying, image-based harms). By focusing on online harms experienced by teenage girls (age 12-16), the project aims to close a knowledge gap in relation to how young girls, especially those from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds, experience and respond to harmful behaviours online. Combining a desk-based study with empirical research, this project places girls’ lived experiences in the centre of the academic inquiry and uses it to inform a critical review of the current socio-educational, legal, and policy approaches concerning online harms, especially those experienced by children.