Connected, curious, cautious: Children's engagement in the digital world
This research explores children’s online participation and experiences, including the benefits and risks of online activities, and the strategies children use to stay safe online.
The research was conducted between December 2024 and February 2025 – one year prior to the implementation of the social media age restrictions.
Children today are digital natives, having grown up in a world where access to the internet and online services is commonplace. Digital platforms (including social media), offer children a space for connection, creativity and learning. At the same time, these digital platforms can expose children to a variety of risks.
This report is part of a series that draws on data from eSafety’s ‘Keeping Kids Safe Online’ survey, a nationally representative survey of 3,454 children aged 10 to 17 years living in Australia.
As Australia implements and evaluates the age restrictions, this cross‑sectional, point-in-time study provides a timely and valuable contribution to the national evidence base.
Key findings
- Nearly all children aged 10 to 17 use social media (96%) or communication platforms (95%) and many have engaged with new and emerging forms of digital technology, including virtual reality (38%) and haptic technology (7%).
- Most children benefit from being online, including by using digital spaces to have fun or relax (72%), explore their interests or hobbies (80%), or connect with others (69%).
- More than half of children (55%) have engaged in behaviours online that may increase their risk of exposure to harm, such as communicating with unknown individuals, sharing their real-time location, having a public or hidden social media account, or using dating apps.
- Most children also use proactive strategies to stay safe online, such as limiting their interactions to known individuals (71%) and keeping their personal information private (55%).
- Parents and caregivers play an important role in shaping children’s online safety – when parents foster open conversations about online experiences, children are more likely to seek their support after a negative online incident.
- However, parent-child discussions about online safety tend to focus less on sensitive or emerging topics such as sexual extortion or the misuse of artificial intelligence.
- Patterns of online participation varied by age and gender, with older teens and trans and gender-diverse children engaging more frequently and taking more risks online.
This report concludes with a discussion of how children engaged with the digital world in the year prior to the implementation of the social media age restrictions and highlights the importance of continuing to support all children to engage safely and confidently online, even with the age restrictions in effect.
Download the report
About this research
This research draws on data from eSafety’s ‘Keeping Kids Safe Online’ survey.
The survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of children aged 10 to 17 years living in Australia and their parent or caregiver. A total of 3,454 children and their parent or caregiver participated in the survey. Two weeks after completion of the core survey, children were re-contacted and asked additional questions, with 2,302 children included in the recontact survey.
Helpful resources
eSafety’s Parents section has information for parents and carers, including information and advice about helping children stay safe online.
eSafety’s Kids and Young People sections provide useful information to help children and young people stay safe online.
eSafety's Social media age restrictions provides information for young people and families to help them understand and adapt to the changes following the implementation of the age restrictions.
Last updated: 17/06/2026