Online experiences and safety of neurodivergent young people: a mixed-methods study

Nurse, Kira Caroline, Perera, Charith ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0190-3346 and Powell, Georgie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6793-0446 2026. Online experiences and safety of neurodivergent young people: a mixed-methods study. Presented at: 28th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, Porto, Portugal, 25-28 October 2026. Published in: Ludi, Stephanie, Nicolau, Hugo, Branham, Stacy, Waycott, Jenny, Hamidi, Foad and Fan, Mingming eds. Proceedings of the 28th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. ACM, p. 42. 10.1145/3797867.3829011

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Abstract

Neurodivergent young people may experience the internet in ways that differ from their non-neurodivergent peers, yet their perspectives remain underrepresented in research. This mixed-methods study explored the online experiences, safety concerns, and perceived digital skills of 57 neurodivergent young people aged 11-13 and 39 parents. Young people took part in internet safety workshops and completed a digital skills questionnaire; parents completed parallel questionnaires about themselves and their child. Reflexive thematic analysis identified three themes: ‘A Social Space’, ‘A Personal Space’ and ‘A Risky Space’. Quantitative findings indicated that doxing and scams were the most commonly cited concerns among those presented. Young people rated their digital competence relatively highly, while parents gave slightly lower ratings, t(15)=2.163, p=0.047, d=0.54. Findings suggest that online safety for neurodivergent young people is related to interactions between individual, social, and platform-level factors. We present a conceptual framework of these influences and discuss implications for research, education, parents, and technology design. Although identifying some areas of vulnerability and risk, our findings also challenge present deficit-oriented narratives around online vulnerability for neurodivergent young people.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item - published (Paper)
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Computational & Mathematical Sciences Schools > Computer Science & Informatics Schools > Psychology
Publisher:	ACM
ISBN:	9798400725210
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	29 October 2026
Last Modified:	29 Oct 2026 15:15
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/190533

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