The Mayor of London has announced that the Violence Reduction Unit will invest £5 million into online harms affecting young people.
New research from the Mayor’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) found that social media ‘changed the scale’ of existing disputes between young people, making them public, mass events, generating pressure to respond and making it harder for them to escape from.
Analysis of London data found that was an association between an increase in misogynistic posts online and a rise in police-recorded violence against women and girls that same day.
Building on learning from research and findings from the Southport inquiry, the VRU will invest £4.9 million in a series of interventions, including funding the first-ever city-wide targeted bystander de-escalation and intervention programme to give young people the skills and confidence to recognise and challenge harmful online behaviours and establishing a bespoke programme of innovation in digital youth work to help London’s youth workers adapt to supporting young people both online and offline.
A new programme will be created improve local responses to online harms. It will initially operated in six boroughs and will design and test approaches including enabling earlier identification of young people affected by online harms and developing local rapid response to incidents where online harms present a risk of violence, exploitation or harmful sexual behaviour.
A targeted mentoring programme will be delivered for for girls and young women at greatest risk of online violence and abuse, while a series on interventions on masculinity for boys and young men will also be funded through positive male role models delivered in schools, through football mentors and by fathers.
There will also be training to upskill youth workers, teachers, parents and carers on healthy relationships and how to better support young people online.
Since it was set up, the VRU has seen a 50 per cent reduction in hospital admissions of young people for knife assault.
Research commissioned by M & C Saatchi World Services, Nisien.Ai and Shout Out UK found that young people do not seek out harmful content, but were still exposed to substantial amounts of violent and abusive content served up by algorithms.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “I have consistently warned of the scourge of algorithms promoting hate, division and intentionally serving up both violent and misogynistic content to children and young people.
“Enough is enough. Online platforms must set out publicly how they will adjust algorithms or face the consequences. Our new research shows that platforms promote violent content when young people haven’t searched for it, and reveals an association between misogyny online and violence against women and girls.
“My Violence Reduction Unit will coordinate a London-wide approach to tackling the scourge of online harms for young people, backed up with £5m investment to deliver a range of interventions. London is leading the way on this work and builds on the tech abuse conference I hosted earlier this year and funding to better protect victims of these crimes which forms part of my commitment to continue building a safer London for all.”
Lib Peck, Director of London’s Violence Reduction Unit, said: “The evidence we have published today once again exposes the undeniable influence that algorithms have in funnelling young people towards violent content.
“It not only shows that online content escalates violence, making it harder for young people to escape from, but for the first time it also shows the connection between misogyny online and violence happening to girls and women in London.
“We know that online harms are borderless, but their impact is felt locally. With the Mayor’s investment and support, we will work in partnership to develop and strengthen a city response to keep children and young people safe and so they are able to enjoy the positive opportunities online.”
