Press Release: More support needed for children with disabilities using the internet

Children with disabilities need better support to manage their online lives and potential online risks, according to new research led by Dr Simon P. Hammond, a leading partnership researcher in delivering innovative projects to support children and young people with care experience navigate the online world.

For children with disabilities, being online and part of a well-connected community can have huge benefits. However, children with disabilities will encounter more online risks, and these can escalate more quickly than for their peers. The research shows that extra support from professionals such as teachers, youth workers and speech and language therapists does not always happen when they are learning, playing, and socialising on the Internet. It also highlights how this impacts on the ability of children with disabilities to access or activate digital resilience support from this community of professionals. The study, published here in the journal New Media and Society, finds that professionals supporting children with disabilities need to better support their connected lives to promote community digital resilience and counter the digital inequalities.

Dr Simon P Hammond is an applied psychologist, Lecturer in Education in UEA's School of Education and Lifelong Learning and Honorary Associate Professor at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. He is a member of Ofcom’s Research Working Group and United Kingdom Centre for Internet Safety (UKCIS) Vulnerable Users Working Group. He leads the Looked After Children’s Mental Health Research Network (LANTERN) within UEAHSCP. LANTERN has three priority areas aiming to provide real world impact that facilitates the positive mental health, and the availability of positive mental health support, for children and young people with care experience.

Please do email ueahscp@uea.ac.uk to find out how you can collaborate with Dr Hammond’s team.