A campaign to support young people to safely navigate social media and prevent violence has been launched.
‘Quit Fighting For Likes’ aims to get young people to think about and discuss attitudes and behaviours around the filming and sharing of violent incidents.
Developed by the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU), YouthLink Scotland and Medics Against Violence (MAV), the new campaign is part of an action plan agreed in the Scottish Government’s Violence Prevention Framework, published in May last year.
It features a short awareness-raising animation, illustrating the digital world where this content can take place and showing an alternative route to switch off from it. A set of memes has also been produced covering a range of messages about why filming and sharing fights is damaging.
The campaign includes a toolkit with resources and activities for those working with young people to support them.
Young people helped develop the campaign through focus groups and feedback sessions involving various schools and youth groups, including pupils from Craigmount High School in Edinburgh.
Pupils and staff from Craigmount were among the first to see the resources during a demonstration at the school on Wednesday September 11.
Speaking at the launch, Minister for Victims and Community Safety Siobhian Brown said: “While social media can play a positive role in young people’s lives, helping them engage with their friends and family, it can also be a platform where violent imagery is spread. This campaign will encourage young people to switch off and not share harmful content.
“Scotland’s Violence Prevention Framework is making encouraging progress with a number of partner initiatives focused on prevention and early intervention so that communities across Scotland remain safe and more people live free from the threat of violence.”
The animation and memes will be running on social media over the coming weeks to coincide with a series of online training sessions throughout September for anyone working with young people to learn more about the practitioner resources.
Tim Frew, CEO YouthLink Scotland, the national agency for youth work, said: “Young people have told us time and time again that they need help to navigate social media.
“It is crucial that adults who live and work with young people are confident in providing trusting and non-judgemental support.
“As the national agency for youth work, we are proud to have collaborated on this important campaign, embedding a youth work approach to the resources to start the conversation and upskill practitioners working with young people.
“By working and learning alongside young people, the toolkit supports young people to make informed, positive, and importantly safe, choices online.”
The practitioner resources are designed to be used in schools and in youth groups by anyone working alongside young people and can be accessed here
Each activity has step by step guidance on how to run the activity effectively.
Jimmy Paul, head of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, said: “While the majority of young people in Scotland do not engage in the filming and sharing of violent incidents on social media, as part of our research for this campaign we listened to groups of young people about their experience.
“The Quit Fighting For Likes campaign aims to enable young people to look at attitudes and behaviours regarding social media while pointing towards the toolkit to equip those working with young people to help build positive social norms.”
Prof Christine Goodall, Director and Founder of MAV, said: “This campaign is important to us because we understand from speaking to young people how conflicted they are about social media and the peer pressure they face to join in with image sharing activities.
“We wanted to produce something that would reflect their views and would support them to take a stand against activity which is both damaging and pervasive.”
Cllr Joan Griffiths, Education, Children and Families Convener City of Edinburgh Council also joined a group of young people taking part in one of the sessions contained in the toolkit during the launch.
She said: “Empowering our children to make responsible choices online is vital for their safety and well-being so I’m pleased that young people from Craigmount High School have been so involved with the development of Quit Fighting for Likes.
“By providing the necessary resources and support, we are encouraging our young people to seek help and support rather than recording and sharing harmful incidents. Our goal is to foster a community where every young person feels safe, supported, and empowered to make choices that contribute to their wellbeing and the wellbeing of others.
“I’d urge people to engage with this campaign and use it as an opportunity to have these important conversations with young people about attitudes and behaviours around sharing of violent incidents.”
