Research

Latest research: Understanding the attitudes and motivations of adults who engage in image-based abuse

This ground breaking research focuses on perpetrators of image-based abuse and front-line workers who engage with perpetrators on a professional basis such as psychologists and law enforcement. The research is based on detailed interviews with 16 adult perpetrators and 12 front-line workers and provides unique insights into the attitudes, circumstances and motivations of image-based abuse perpetration and the visibility of this behaviour within intervention services.

Key findings include:

• Perpetrators demonstrated little remorse and downplayed their actions through minimisation, tending to blame the victim or even deny responsibility.
• With the exception of those involved in taking images of strangers and the taking and sharing of child exploitation images, few were aware that their behaviour was against the law.
• There was a strong sense that on-sharing intimate images without consent was fairly commonplace and becoming somewhat normalised. Some perpetrators highlighted that they were aware of ‘numerous people’ getting away with similar actions.
• The research also highlights the need to see more action to disrupt the normalising culture around image-based abuse.

Digital mentoring of older Australians

The Encouraging digital participation of older Australians through mentoring research explores ways family, friends and peers of older Australians can encourage them to increase their online engagement. Findings are based on data from online forums of 90 people aged 30 to 59 who have a family member, friend or peer aged 70 and over. This report also includes data from a national survey of young people aged 8 to 17, which examined, among other issues, young people’s roles in assisting older family members to use digital devices and the internet. Key findings include:

• Participants overwhelmingly believed that it is important for older Australians to have better digital skills, largely for their own benefit.
• Perceived benefits of better digital skills include access to goods and services, being able to pursue personal interests, alleviating social isolation and providing more independence and confidence.
• The main barriers to helping older Australians gain better digital skills, as seen by mentors, were lack of time, patience, confidence and the potential logistical challenges—such as transport to venues.

Digital parenting

The Office of the eSafety Commissioner has commissioned a national survey of 3,520 Australian parents to better understand their attitudes and behaviours towards keeping their children safe online and digital technology usage.

The first series of research findings are presented in three interactive infographics, including:

• Digital families—connected homes and technology usage: 99% of parents with children aged 2 to 17 have an internet connection in the home. These homes use a range of technologies including; wi-fi (88%), smart TVs (62%), smart speakers (17%) and internet-enabled home security (17%).
• Digital parenting—supervising pre-schoolers online: 81% of parents with pre-schoolers aged 2 to 5 say their children use the internet. Of these parents, 94% report their child was already using the internet by the age of 4.
• Digital parenting—managing screen time: 52% of parents with kids (aged 6 to 12) and 68% of parents with teens (aged 13 to 17) believe their children spend too much time online. Parents reported this was most apparent for children when playing online games, using social media and streaming TV shows. Most parents use a range of strategies to supervise their children’s online activities including talking to them about the amount of time they spend online.

The Office of the eSafety Commissioner has commissioned research into how older Australians perceive and use digital devices and the internet. This research has been undertaken to inform development of the Be Connected program to provide resources and support training to increase the confidence, skills and online safety of older Australians.

The research comprised:

• A national survey, conducted between of 3,600 older Australians aged 50 years and over.
• Focus groups of 26 respondents who were identified as having no to low digital literacy.

Research findings are presented in a summary report, with the full report also available.

Top level findings from this research are also presented in three infographics including:

1. Attitudes and motivation: The majority of older Australians would like to use the internet more, however, this desire decreases with age. While the majority were interested in training to digitally up skill, there was a clear preference for face to face training. This preference was more pronounced for those with no to low digital literacy.
2. Confidence: Older Australians who are aged 50 to 69 are significantly more engaged with the internet than their older counterparts. Those who are 70+ years old cited lack of trust, confidence, skills and personal relevance for their digital disengagement.
3. Fear: Older Australians have fears about going online. Their fears relate to security concerns and a lack of technical skills. Close to half reported experiences related to virus, scam, credit card and personal information theft.

State of play – youth and online gaming

The Office of the eSafety Commissioner has drawn together data from its 2017 Youth Participation Survey in the production of this report into youth and online gaming. As one of the first pieces of research on this topic in Australia, this report aims to better understand the:

• interest among young people in Australia for online gaming and esports, and
• the prevalence of in-game bullying and coping strategies adopted by young people being bullied while playing video games online.

Some key findings from the report:

• Online multiplayer gaming is a very popular activity for young Australians, with 6 in 10 young people aged 8-17 having played these games.
• Nearly 1 in 2 young people have played esport video game titles.
• An estimated 17% of multiplayer gamers experienced in-game bullying.

The Office of the eSafety Commissioner (Australia), Netsafe (New Zealand) and UK Safer Internet Centre with the University of Plymouth (UK) have collaborated on research culminating in this report on young people’s experience of sending and sharing nude and nearly nude images, otherwise known as sexting. This work builds on jointly presented research by these agencies at the inaugural Online Safety on the Edge conference in Sydney on 3 November 2017 which was co-hosted by the Office of the eSafety Commissioner and Netsafe New Zealand. The purpose of this shared research is to better understand the:

• prevalence of sending and sharing of both solicited and unsolicited nude or nearly nude images or videos, and
• young people’s influences and motivations for this behaviour.