Kaitlynn Mendes understands the dangers social media poses to young people. Now she’s trying to help them navigate them.  

“Digital technologies are introducing new forms of harm and exacerbating existing ones. We’re seeing a range of things like using digital technologies to issue rape or death threats, to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. Even AI plays a role now, with the generation of deepfake nude images, artificially created but very realistic.”

Her concern comes from two roles she plays – as a Western University sociologist whose work sits at the intersection of media, education and politics and as a mother of two young children who will someday use social media.  

She emphasizes the dark content offered up by social media is growing fast – and it’s here to stay.  

“Unfortunately, we're not going to get rid of the harms. So it's about how can we support young people to navigate these digital worlds that are constantly changing, evolving?”

Kaitlynn launched the DIY: Digital Safety research program to find out exactly what harms young people are experiencing from social media and offer strategies they and their parents can use to become informed digital citizens.

Through focus groups and a nationwide survey of a thousand young people, Kaitlynn and her team have learned parents often feel uninformed about the harms on social media and have little idea how to help their children. The research also shows young people usually don’t understand their rights when it comes to the use of digital technology.  

“That's fundamental. We want young people to understand they have digital rights. They also have a right to privacy, bodily autonomy and sexual integrity. This is particularly relevant with things like nude image sharing. We want them to understand just as they should have control over their bodies and who gets to see them naked, those same rights extend to digital spaces.”

That’s why the DIY in the name of the program is a play on words, meaning the usual “do-it-yourself” and, in this case, “digitally informed youth.”

Kaitlynn is realistic, acknowledging the goal of her work isn’t to keep young people from using social media.  

“Risk isn't necessarily a bad thing. Young people can't develop resilience and independence without encountering challenge. So what we ideally want is for them to use these technologies and to not bubble-proof them and stop every bad thing from happening, but to let them know if they’re going to go into these online spaces, here are some things that may happen. And here are some ways they can deal with it.”