Behind the Screens: Safety in Digital Spaces for Children aged 10 – 17 in Jordan (2024)

As children’s lives increasingly shift into digital spaces, the internet has become both an essential tool and a significant source of risk, particularly for children with limited digital awareness and literacy. Easy access to smartphones, tablets, and laptops has transformed how children communicate, learn, and socialize, often without adequate safeguards or understanding of online dangers such as privacy violations, exploitation, and exposure to harmful content. In response to these challenges, Save the Children Jordan conducted a mixed method study targeting children aged 10 to 17 years and their parents to explore children’s online experiences, the risks they face, and the support mechanisms available from both perspectives. The study reveals a high level of internet access among children, with 76.7 percent reporting access through one or more digital devices and no significant differences between boys and girls. Internet use increases with age, with the highest daily usage recorded among children aged 16 to 17 years at 86.5 percent. These findings underscore the urgent need for targeted digital safety, digital literacy, and child protection interventions, and provide critical evidence to inform future programming and advocacy aimed at creating safer online environments for children.