About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 24. Technology, Media & Child Development

Abstract

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Background:
Negative experiences like bullying and harassment during childhood can contribute to long-term developmental challenges, particularly in how young people manage social and emotional stressors. With the rise of social media, adolescents face increasingly complex online dynamics, where opportunities for connection are often accompanied by exposure to harmful content and interactions. Understanding how adolescents navigate and cope with negative online experiences can reveal strategies for fostering resilience, empowering them to protect themselves and others.
Reporting inappropriate content or behavior online, which involves using platform tools to notify moderators, is a promising resilience strategy. Such actions can strengthen young people’s sense of digital citizenship and resilience by allowing them to practice problem solving and foster safer online environments (Vissenberg et al., 2022). This study examines adolescents’ experiences with online reporting, exploring their perceptions, motivations, and related cognitive and emotional processes.
Methods:
This study analyzed an open-ended question about adolescents’ experiences with reporting, which was embedded in a larger survey on online safety. The survey was completed by a nationally diverse sample of 1,502 adolescents (48.2% female; 57.2% White/non-Hispanic; ages 13-17 evenly distributed). Participants described a situation where they reported or wanted to report content, including details about the content, context and platform, interpersonal dynamics, and emotional responses.
We iteratively developed a coding schema, starting with each author independently coding 100 responses to identify themes. After discussion, we finalized a schema that first coded whether participants had reporting experience. If yes, their responses were further coded across different domains: content and platforms; emotional and cognitive responses; and interpersonal and ecological contexts (Figure 1). We also mapped the relational codes to reporting actions, visualizing the relationship between interpersonal dynamics and motivations to report (Figure 2).
Results:
Preliminary results from the first 318 responses show that 44% of adolescents have reported content on social media, while 56% have not. Facebook was the most commonly reported platform, followed by Instagram and YouTube. The most frequently reported content included sexual content (25%), violence (21%), and bullying/harassment (14%), often accompanied by negative emotions like fear and disgust. Over 10% of those who reported content described reporting as a prosocial behavior. Among those who specified the victim’s identity, about half indicated self-victimization, while about 22% reported the victim was someone they knew personally. Among those who mentioned the perpetrator of the reported content, one-third identified them as a stranger, while 15% said they knew the individual; over half did not specify the perpetrator’s identity.
Discussion:
Over half of sampled adolescents have not reported content, which may highlight barriers such as uncertainty about platform policies or low confidence in reporting mechanisms. For those who have reported, prosocial concerns appear to be important motivators, particularly when they or someone they know are at risk. Information about the perpetrator’s identity is limited, potentially due to fear of retaliation, limited interaction, or insufficient knowledge. These early findings underscore the need to raise awareness about reporting tools and their effectiveness, and to empower adolescents to act when they encounter harmful content.

Author information

Author	Role
Hannah Chidekel, Boston Children's Hospital	Presenting author
Zhiying Yue, Boston Children's Hospital	Non-presenting author
David Bickham, Boston Children's Hospital	Non-presenting author
Michael Rich, Boston Children's Hospital	Non-presenting author

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