Girls and young women are seeing more unwanted sexual images and suffering more cyberstalking online, but still don\u2019t want to take a break from social media because of a fear of missing out, a survey for Girlguiding has found.<\/p>\n
\u201cFomo\u201d is keeping more than half of 11- to 21-year-olds on apps such as TikTok, Snapchat and WhatsApp despite nearly one in five saying they have been being stalked online and more than a third saying they are seeing sexual images they didn\u2019t wish to see, the survey of more than 2,000 girls and young women found.<\/p>\n
The incidence of both online harms is up year on year, according to the findings, which also showed half of girls and young women aged between seven and 21 feel anxious about their futures, and only a quarter feel very confident in their life.<\/p>\n
Despite the reluctance to take a break, only 37% of girls and young women aged 11 to 21 are reporting that they feel they have strong connections online, and this number has been falling over the last four years.<\/p>\n