Global South's young internet users at risk amid policy and research gaps

A new comprehensive study sheds light on the glaring gap in global research concerning youth online safety in developing regions, revealing that the Global South continues to be underserved by existing frameworks. The study, titled “Online Safety for All: Sociocultural Insights from a Systematic Review of Youth Online Safety in the Global South” and published on arXiv, undertook a systematic review of 66 peer-reviewed studies conducted between 2014 and 2024, offering the most exhaustive mapping to date of how online safety is being studied, experienced, and protected across countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East.

The findings outline a global inequity in research representation, highlighting methodological shortcomings, cultural blind spots, and policy voids that leave millions of adolescents vulnerable to risks like cyberbullying, online sexual exploitation, privacy violations, and technology addiction. The authors call for a paradigm shift in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research to incorporate youth-centered, culturally contextualized, and locally led interventions.

How has youth online safety been studied in the Global South?

The review reveals that most research on youth online safety in the Global South has concentrated on a narrow set of issues, particularly cyberbullying and online victimization, with significantly less attention to privacy risks, online sexual exploitation, and digital addiction. Quantitative surveys dominated the methodological approach, accounting for 43 out of the 66 studies, while qualitative and mixed-method investigations were relatively rare, limiting the depth of understanding around youth experiences and cultural nuances.

Geographically, Asia led with the highest number of studies, especially from India, China, and Malaysia, while Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean were starkly underrepresented. Marginalized youth, including LGBTQIA+ communities, children with disabilities, and rural youth, were notably missing from the literature, in part due to sociopolitical constraints and cultural taboos that impede open data collection in some regions.

The review also found that research in these regions tends to be locally initiated, with 51 of the 66 studies led by researchers based in the Global South. However, a lack of cross-regional collaborations and funding disparities, especially publication fees and limited research infrastructure, continues to marginalize these perspectives from global visibility.

What are the major contributions of the research on youth online safety in the Global South?

One of the most compelling contributions of this review is its insight into the cultural and social determinants that shape youth online behavior. Cultural dynamics, particularly in collectivist societies, played a dominant role in how online risks are perceived and mitigated. In countries like Saudi Arabia, India, and Vietnam, for instance, family reputation and societal norms around gender and sexuality heavily influenced both the experiences of young users and the type of safety interventions deemed acceptable.

The authors report that education remains the cornerstone of most safety strategies, with 41 studies emphasizing the need for improved digital literacy among youth and parents. Parental mediation and school-based awareness campaigns emerged as crucial tools, although overly restrictive or punitive approaches often backfired by encouraging covert online behaviors among teens.

Other significant findings highlight the limitations of current technical interventions, such as privacy settings and filtering tools, that are often ill-suited to the digital literacy levels and linguistic diversity found in Global South contexts. Emotional resilience, peer support systems, and even gamified learning tools are emerging as more effective, context-sensitive solutions.

Policy responses, however, were largely absent in the research. Only five studies addressed legislative and governance issues, pointing to a lack of comprehensive legal frameworks tailored to youth safety online. This is especially concerning in regions where offline vulnerabilities like poverty and violence compound the risks encountered in digital environments.

How can HCI research take a more holistic and global approach to investigating youth online safety?

The authors call for a sweeping reorientation in HCI research - from Global North-centric frameworks to inclusive, intersectional models that foreground local cultures, traditions, and youth agency. Participatory design methods, where youth co-create safety tools and policies, were advocated as essential for crafting interventions that are both relevant and effective.

Methodologically, the paper urges researchers to diversify beyond cross-sectional surveys, incorporating longitudinal, ethnographic, and community-based research that can track behavioral shifts and deeper sociocultural influences over time. The authors also recommend adopting strength-based approaches that highlight the resourcefulness and resilience of youth in the Global South rather than focusing solely on vulnerabilities.

Crucially, the study underscores the value of cross-regional collaborations between researchers in the Global South and North. These partnerships can enrich the global understanding of youth online safety, promote the development of more adaptive digital tools, and dismantle knowledge hierarchies that have long sidelined voices from the Global South.

Additionally, the researchers propose practical strategies, such as developing multilingual safety tools, integrating culturally grounded education into school curricula, and designing privacy features that are intuitive for users with limited digital experience. These recommendations, the authors argue, are not just academic; they are a call to action for policymakers, tech companies, and educators aiming to create safer online environments for the world’s most vulnerable digital citizens.