Ofcom commissioned qualitative research looking into adult internet users’ attitudes towards seeing sensitive and harmful types of online content, and online tools and features that could help them with navigating this content.
The research involved 75 participants completing tasks and answering questions on an online community, before 26 of them took part in follow-up online focus groups. Participants were from a diverse range of backgrounds, including some more likely to be affected by online harms such as hateful content. The research explored:
- Understanding, experiences and attitudes towards sensitive and potentially harmful content.
- Understanding and experiences of user verification status.
- Attitudes towards using content controls and user empowerment features to navigate sensitive and potentially harmful content, including filtering out certain types of users and content.
CONTENT WARNING: This report include references to internet users’ experiences of online content that in some cases may be distressing, including reference to hate and discrimination, and graphic violence.
This research was conducted to engage with people who have lived experience of harm and build on our existing evidence base around adults’ experiences of online content. We also monitor encounters with potentially harmful content in the Online Experiences Tracker and Children’s Online Safety Tracker. The research was published at the same time as the Additional Duties for Categorised Services consultation and was one of a wider range of evidence sources that informed the development of the consultation proposals, including those related to user empowerment and identity verification.
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