The importance of safety and inclusivity in digital mental health services for young people

As the summer holiday approaches, parents and carers will be braced for the annual juggle of work and home life. For those used to battling social media for their offspring’s attention, the summer holidays can at times be stressful. And with ongoing news stories highlighting concerns over online harms, knowing which sites are ‘safe’ can feel impossible to determine.?

Although Kooth is not of the same mould as TikTok or Snapchat, it does intentionally mirror some of the ‘social media experience’ - after all we want people to feel engaged and able to come to us for support if they’re struggling with their mental wellbeing.?

So while children and young people logging in can scroll through content and comment on each other’s posts, there is one significant and crucial difference between our service and other social media: Kooth is 100% pre-moderated.?

In addition, there is no private message functionality on the site. Each individual submission on any part of the site, from discussion forums or in response to articles, are reviewed by our specially trained moderation team and published or rejected based on adherence to our strict community and age guidelines. In this way, we can preclude anyone illicitly contacting service users, safely guard against trolling and ensure nothing inappropriate or triggering appears on the platform: social media with an iron-clad extra layer of protection.

Anonymity

The fact that we don’t ask for any identifiable information is the reason many young people choose to come to us. In fact, according to a recent survey of our service users, 97% of young people said it was important that they could be anonymous on Kooth.

According to one of our service users: “I feel safe talking about things with the Kooth counsellors. Being anonymous helps me to feel comfortable and it's harder for me to open up to someone in person.”

How do we ensure safety when our service is anonymous??

Ensuring the safety of our service users is central to all we do at Kooth and we have robust processes for risk management and escalation in line with regulatory and local frameworks. We believe that our anonymity supports effective safeguarding, rather than acting as a barrier. In other words, anonymity brings young people into our service where we can support them, rather than them slipping through the net and trying to cope alone.

On the platform side, we are fully moderated, to ensure that content published in relation to any issue is not harmful and any distressing communications are responded to in a timely way. Individuals are not identifiable to each other and cannot make contact outside of the platform.??

Inclusivity

Many people coming to us want to explore numerous aspects of their life that impact their mental health. These areas include particularly sensitive topics such as gender expression/identity, sexuality, culture, race, and faith. Our role is to support them on their personal mental health and wellbeing journey. Key to this is creating a welcoming space where people can feel safe to bring forward any concerns affecting their mental wellbeing.?

Our approach is to walk alongside communities of people who are experiencing mental health difficulties or distress. We will often work in partnership with support groups and people with lived experience to create content, or to reflect their struggles. We strive to learn how we can enhance our service to best meet the needs of every cohort who may come to us for support.?

As one young person on Kooth put it: "Kooth have often included our thoughts and opinions into things. It’s great to watch this being done again. The future is looking bright, with the way Kooth is blossoming into different areas. It’s honestly, so rewarding to be part of and watching the changes happen."

Kooth - the next 20 years

Technology always moves quickly; as always, we will see how we can use it to best help our growing community. Whatever the next 20 years brings, our founding principles will stand firm, ensuring Kooth is there to offer vital, non-judgemental support to those who need it.