Children’s Wellbeing in a Digital World 2025

Year 4 annual index report

This report is the fourth in an annual series evaluating and tracking impacts of technology on children’s digital wellbeing.

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Important findings in the Year 4 report
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Important findings in the Year 4 report

The 2025 report explores four key areas:

An internet of extremes: Both the positive and negative dimensions of online wellbeing are growing. This is a trend we have not seen before with the negative Index score remaining stable in previous waves.
Polarised impacts: While vulnerable children have consistently shown higher positive and negatives wellbeing scores than their peers, their negative indexes have risen to their highest level in the three years that the Index has been tracking them.
A growing sense of unease: A majority of children still feel safe online, but this has dropped compared to the previous year. Additionally, children find the harms they experience more upsetting.
Digital parenting: Children are now more open with their parents about online activities. Additionally, parents’ awareness of children’s online activities has increased, as has their use of tools and controls to set boundaries.

Key stats about children’s digital wellbeing

56%

Children see the internet as important for meeting good friends (56% this year compared to 50% in 2023).

24%

This year, 24% of vulnerable children said upsetting experiences happened to them ‘quite a lot’ or more, which is a significant increase from 10% last year.

77%

Most children still feel safe online (77%), but this is a decrease from last year (81%). Additionally, vulnerable children are less likely to feel safe compared to their non-vulnerable peers (70% compared to 79%).

93%

Almost all children report being at least ‘somewhat open’ with their parents about their online activities. Parents show more awareness about children’s online activities too.