Research

Research Spotlights

Research Spotlights are short, fully referenced summaries of our literature reviews. Each one sets out what we looked at, what the research found, what it means in practice and where the evidence needs to go next. New Spotlights are added regularly.

• The Soft-Porn Funnel: Algorithms, Desensitisation and Escalation
  How recommender systems and platform design can move young people from incidental exposure to increasingly extreme sexual content.
• How Atypical Sexual Interests Develop: Biology, Experience and the Online Environment
  What current evidence says about the biological, developmental and online influences on atypical sexual interests, and why early, non-stigmatising support matters.
• ADHD, ASD and Online Harm
  How ADHD and autism shape young people’s experiences of harmful online content, and how socioeconomic background may add to the risk.
• The Effect of Violent and Coercive Pornography on Adolescent Males
  What current evidence suggests about adolescent males’ exposure to violent and coercive pornography, and how it relates to their attitudes, behaviour and wellbeing.
• Algorithmic Pathways to Extremity and Online Sexual Harms Among Adolescents
  How engagement-driven recommender systems and platform design decisions steer adolescents towards increasingly sexualised content, and why platform architecture is a primary target for change.
• Anonymity, Reduced Accountability, and Adolescent Moral Reasoning Online
  Whether anonymity and reduced accountability really drive toxic online behaviour in adolescents, and what newer research says about Suler’s online disinhibition factors.
• Behaviour Change Frameworks and Youth Health Behaviours
  What behaviour change frameworks applied to young people’s sexual health, substance use, gambling and mental health can teach us about reducing engagement with harmful online content.