Online communities, online safety & young people: our policy perspective

This policy summary is part of a series setting out the major changes that are needed to improve mental health. It draws upon Mental Health Foundation research and analysis which can be found in the 'further reading' section.  

The recommendations in this paper are for England, though many are also applicable to the other nations of the UK; some, including those on online safety, apply to the whole of the UK. 

 Contents

• Why does online safety matter for mental health?
• Online safety education: the evidence
• Core principles and approach
• Recommendations for action

Why does online safety matter for mental health? 

For many people, more of our lives than ever before are being spent online, with the average UK adult now spending 4 hours and 20 minute online every day.¹

Some of that time spent online will be spent in ‘communities’ – a term by which we mean any online spaces where people engage with others. There are different ways to engage with communities: much of the evidence on helpful online communities is around people actively taking part in communities by sharing their experiences and commenting on those of others.² On the other hand, we know that the impact of harmful communities can extend beyond those who actively engage, to those who just read or view material. Some of the places we find online communities are: 

• Social media (like Instagram, Snapchat, X/Twitter, Facebook)
• Messaging groups (like WhatsApp or Discord)
• Forums and online groups (like Reddit, Mumsnet, Digital Spy, Steam, or gaming servers)
• Website comment sections
• Influencer followings
• Video platforms (like YouTube, Twitch, or TikTok)

For many of us, online communities enrich our lives, bring us joy, and help us to find comfort in difficult times. They allow us to make friends, explore hobbies, connect with people who share our own identities and ways of thinking, and learn from those who do not.

But there are darker online communities too. There are ones that incite vicious racism of the type we saw in the summer riots of 2024³, and that promote misogyny, antisemitism and other forms of hatred. And there are communities that promote self-harm, eating disorders, and suicide. All of these are bad for our mental health in various ways. 

We all have a part to play in protecting ourselves and those around us from the worst the online world has to offer. Education on this topic, both self-taught and taught by others, is essential.

Online communities can be a real source of positive relationships, which we know are one of the key building blocks of good mental health.

For those who get involved in communities based on hatred, focusing on hate over kindness is likely to worsen mental health  , and also have real-world consequences when they act on their beliefs. We know the immense toll being the target of hate and discrimination takes on victims’ mental health.⁴  And, of course, communities which encourage self-harm, eating disorders and suicide can have very real impacts for those involved in them. ^5,6    

Evidence: Young people's experiences

In April 2025, the Mental Health Foundation undertook polling of 2157 young people aged 16 – 21, to find out more about their experiences of accessing harmful content online.

We found incredibly high levels of access to online communities. Most young people (98%) access at least one online community every day – with more than half doing so several times an hour (57%).

Young people reported making valuable connections through online communities. Around three quarters (76%) of young people reported feeling very or somewhat connected with others through online communities, and two thirds (63%) said they’d been in an online community which had made them feel more confident or supported in who they are.

The findings however also highlighted that most young people had been exposed to harmful or disturbing content online, with almost 7 in 10 young people (68%) having seen disturbing or harmful content online. More than a third of young people had seen suicide or self-harm content (35%), and more than a quarter had also been exposed to pro-eating disorder content online (28%).

Other forms of harmful online content were also prevalent – over two fifths of young people had been exposed to bullying (40%) or racist/discriminatory content (42%).

Among those who had felt unsafe due to content they saw online, two thirds (65%) said social media had made them feel this way, and one third (32%) said messaging groups – like Discord or WhatsApp – had done the same. 

When asked to name a particular online community that had made individuals feel unsafe, the most common examples given were on Snapchat (19%), TikTok (14%), Instagram (13%), Discord (12%), Reddit (11%) and X/Twitter (8%). It is worth noting that, of these answers, all except X/Twitter were also featured in the list of young people’s favourite online communities. 

Evidence: Schools

Positively, we know from work carried out by the Children’s Commissioner that most children report having had lessons about how to stay safe online.7 There are also encouraging signs that Relationships, Sex and Health Education (RSHE) standards and consistency have improved since the statutory RSHE requirement was introduced in 2020.⁸

However, the polling we undertook in April 2025 found that 10% of young people aged 16-21 received no online safety education at all. Among those who did, nearly three in five (58%) found it was not helpful enough or helpful at all. 

This is of real concern given that 76% of secondary school teachers and 60% of primary school teachers have reported that they were extremely concerned about the influence of online misogyny in their schools.⁹

• Online communities now form a key part of our relationships, and like relationships that take place offline, these are essential for our mental health. We need to take a public health approach to making sure the online world is as safe for young people’s mental health as can be.
• Much of the damage done to our mental health in society, and by extension in online communities, is driven by commercial practice. Governments, regulators and corporations themselves have a role in protecting us from this harm. In recognition of the challenges of regulating the social media sector, we believe schools and parents need to be supported to ‘plug the gap,’ while regulation is lacking or poorly enforced.
• Young people cannot be excluded from the online world until their late teens. Our online existence will play a huge role in everyone’s lives, and children who do not have access to it until later in their youth are likely to face challenges if they are suddenly exposed to the vast and complex internet.
• As young people will have access to online spaces, education, in particular schools, are best placed to support young people with healthy use of the internet and participation in online communities, just as we encourage schools to teach children about relationships, democracy, sex, narcotics, personal economics and other elements of society.
   

Last Updated: May 2025. For review: May 2026.