Worries of harassment amongst young people

A new online Ipsos survey for Action Aid UK has indicated the scale of harassment that young people aged 14-21 in the UK, Brazil, India and Kenya encounter.

One in ten young people aged 14-21 interviewed in the UK worries about being harassed ‘every day’. Over half (58%) of the girls / young women interviewed in the UK has personally experienced some form of harassment in the last six months.

Social media also appears to be a damaging influence, where more than half (55%) of young people across the four countries has either seen or heard women portrayed in a negative or offensive way in the last month.

Nevertheless, confidence in reporting harassment is high among this generation. Of those interviewed in the UK, two-thirds (66%) of those who had been harassed in the last six months would feel comfortable telling someone, with two-thirds of them already having confided in someone about their experience. In Kenya, 64 per cent would feel comfortable telling someone, rising to 74 per cent in Brazil and 79 per cent in India.

Looking to solutions for the current problem, young people predominately cite education as the answer. Overall, 80 per cent support education as the way to tackle harassment of girls/women, backing:

• Educating boys in schools about how to treat girls (60%);
• Educating girls in school about how to report harassment (58%);
• Educating teachers about taking accusations seriously (45%);
• Educating parents (41%).

Nick Philp, Research Director at Ipsos said:

Sadly, the proportion of young people who worry daily about being harassed is no surprise. Whilst still being subject to more ‘traditional’ forms of harassment such as cat-calling and wolf-whistling, social media is also proving a damaging influence. Young people are better connected than ever, and although seen by many as vital to their social and creative lives, many also have to endure harassment whilst online. Although the majority of young people will not suffer in silence, there is still work to be done. Young people themselves suggesting that education, both amongst themselves and people in positions of trust, as a way to tackle harassment.

Technical note:

The study was conducted online by Ipsos, on behalf of Action Aid between 18 December 2018 – 20 January 2019 with a sample of 1,000 young people aged 14‐21 in the UK, 560 young people aged 14-21 in Kenya and 500 young people aged 14‐21 in Brazil and India respectively. Interviews were carried out on Ipsos’s online service using a quota sample. Interlocking quotas were set to balance the sample based on age and gender. Consent to participate in the study was gained from both the respondent themselves and their parent/legal guardian for those aged 14-17. Respondents were given a ‘prefer not to say’ option at each question.

In the UK, the data output generally reflects the overall sample population. Brazil, Kenya and India have lower levels of internet connectivity and reflect online populations that tend to be more urban and have higher education/income than the general population. Kenya data is weighted to the age and gender profile of the population.

When asking respondents about ‘harassment’ it was defined as ‘unwanted or upsetting remarks or physical attention e.g. Wolf whistling (a whistle directed towards someone to express sexual attraction or admiration), catcalling (a loud whistle or a comment of a sexual nature made to someone when they are passing by), negative comments about girls’ appearance, sexual jokes about girls, sharing explicit (e.g. naked) photos online, “sexting”, groping, “upskirting” (taking a photo up a girl’s skirt), being forced to kiss someone’.