Physical metaphors for digital safety

Supporting the safe use of the internet, especially amongst novice users, is a clear ambition of Nominet Trust as it is for many of the organisations with which we work. However, approaches to supporting internet safety are often bounded by a limited number of ways of thinking and describing online risk and security.

The emotive language of ‘safety’ and ‘risk’ means that it is difficult to move beyond what are often polarized view points. In order to develop effective strategies then, we must explore alternative ways to frame our discussions to enable consideration of new ways of bringing about a safer, more accessible internet.

In the physical world we have a great depth of understanding about safety that builds from experiences across generations. However, in part due to the relative recency of the internet, we still need to find a greater depth of understanding of safety in the digital world. This publication looks at the links between our online and offline approaches; to question how we might find new ways to think about internet safety and then build strategies to ensure novice, and experienced users alike, can benefit safely from using the internet.