Consent form for design workshop

Information sheet and consent form: design-led workshop exploring harmful online sexual behaviour amongst children and young people

The UK Safer Internet Centre (made up of Childnet International, SWGfL and the Internet Watch Foundation) is working on a new project. This project will think about new ways we might help children and young people to recognise harmful sexual behaviour they experience online, and empower them to seek help.

We want to explain how your child will be involved in our programme, and to give you some insight into who we are, as well as to ask that you kindly fill in the following form to give Childnet consent for your child’s participation in the programme.

What we hope to achieve with this project 

The online landscape and young people’s experiences of online harms is changing all the time, especially as new technologies emerge. We would now like to reassess the current experiences and perspectives of children, young people and their educators regarding harmful sexual behaviour online, so that we can ensure the support we provide in the future is practical, helpful and relevant.

The approach we are taking and why? 

We have already consulted our two youth participation groups (Childnet’s Digital Champions and Youth Advisory Board) to begin those conversations around their understanding of harmful sexual behaviours online and the actual experiences of these behaviours.

We now want to work with your child in a design-led way. This means exploring a question in an open way with the people it affects, then coming up with solutions together. For example, we will think about what resources, products and services we could offer as the UK Safer Internet Centre to better support children and young people with the issue of harmful online sexual behaviour. We want children and young people, and their educators, to directly contribute towards our work in this area.

What will my child be asked to do?

We hope to work with your child for 90 minutes. We will begin by discussing the thoughts and perspectives of the youth groups that we have already spoken to. Following this conversation, your child will then take part in a workshop where they will think about what resources and services the UK Safer Internet Centre could design to help support children and young people with this issue. They will mind map a variety of ideas before prioritising some and thinking about the potential design of these.

Safeguarding

Some of the subject matter in this workshop may be sensitive. As such, we will follow the following safeguarding procedures during the workshop:

• Participants will give their own consent at the start of the workshop.
• ​Participants will be asked not to talk about anything personal that they would not be happy with the other members of the group discussing outside of the session.
• ​​Participants will be advised not to discuss any personally sensitive details or information relating to criminal or illegal activity.
• Participants will be told that, anything shared during the workshop that indicates risk of harm to the individual or to others will be disclosed to the school and any other relevant agencies as per the school’s safeguarding procedures.
• Participants will be able to take a break at any point during the workshop should they want or need to.
• Participants can change their mind about taking part in the workshop at any time.

How will data obtained from the workshop be used?

• Workshop leaders will make notes of what the participants say, write and draw in the workshops.
• ​Any quotes used from these notes used in any publications will be anonymous (e.g. will not refer to the participant’s name or school).
• ​​Quotes will be used to inform our work and propose funding for new projects.
• All data will be stored securely and only those with legitimate need will have access to it.
• Participants will be able to take a break at any point during the workshop should they want or need to.
• All data will be processed according to current Data Protection Legislation

Please complete this form if you consent for your child to take part in the UK Safer Internet Centre harmful online sexual behaviour workshop in your child’s school: