Welcome to the Ember Youth Survey!
Welcome and thank you for checking out this survey!
This survey is part of a research project called "Ember". Ember is led by SWGfL, a UK charity working to protect and empower children and young people online, and funded by Safe Online.
🔍 What is this survey about?
We want to hear from young people aged 13 to 24 about their views and experiences of being online, including any challenges or harm they may have faced. Your insights will help us understand the kind of support young people need when experiencing difficult situations online. We recognise that some of this content can be upsetting to some young people and your safety is most important to us! If you are under 16 years, we need confirmation from a trusted adult (e.g. parent, guardian, carer) before you can take part. We suggest you ask your trusted adult to go through the information on this page with you. If you like more help in deciding whether this survey is right for you/your child, we have put together some further details here.
The Ember research project received ethical approval from The University of Suffolk Ethics Committee (RETH24/075).
⏱️ How long will it take?
The survey takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. You can stop at any time by closing the browser. No answers will be saved until you click "Finish Survey" at the end.
🔐 Is this survey anonymous?
Yes. We do not collect any personal or identifying information, so your answers cannot be traced back to you. We will not include any free-text boxes to avoid the risk of identifying anyone or receiving sensitive information that we cannot follow up on.
🤝 Is it voluntary?
Absolutely. You can choose whether or not to take part and questions have a 'prefer not to say' option or can be skipped. The only questions where this is not possible are the ones asking about your age and the one instructing you to create a unique code. This is because we need this information so we can make sure we're following the rules that help to protect young people online.
- If you start the survey but change your mind, you can close the browser to stop the survey - no answers will be submitted.
- You can also withdraw your answers up to 14 days after completing the survey. To do this, you’ll need to share the unique code you created (we’ll help you with this before you finish) and send us an email (ember@swgfl.org.uk) - either from an existing email address or one you’ve set up just for this purpose.
Your answers will be securely stored and used only for research purposes. All data will be deleted by the end of the research (31st March 2026). The general privacy notice of SWGfL can be found here.
🧠 Your views matter
There are no right or wrong answers. We just want to understand your opinions and experiences.
❤️ Need support?
If any of the questions in the survey make you feel upset or bring up difficult memories, you can stop at any time. We also provide a link to support resources throughout the survey, feel free to take a look and/or use these if you feel that could be helpful to you.
If you have any questions before taking part, please feel free to reach out to the Ember team via email (ember@swgfl.org.uk).
🎤 Interested in sharing more?
This survey is anonymous, so we can’t offer rewards or vouchers. But if you’ve had harmful online experiences and want to share your story as part of our research, we’d love to hear from you. If you're under 16, we'll ask for permission from a parent or trusted adult. As a thank you, we’ll offer a voucher for your time. More information will be available at the end of the survey or you can contact us via email: ember@swgfl.org.uk.
