New online safety report maps harms, habits and coping strategies for young people in India.
Empowering the next generation starts with understanding their digital journey. It means helping young people navigate online spaces so that they can access the best opportunities to dream big and succeed. The British Asian Trust and BT Group are pleased to play a key role in launching the SCREEN Survey, a new report on how young people in India navigate digital life.
Drawing on responses from 3,907 young people across 20 states in India, with a deliberate focus on under-resourced and rural communities, it is one of the first national, weighted studies of 11–30 year‑olds and maps real harms, habits and coping strategies.
The report data challenges some of the biggest assumptions about online safety for young people in India.
The SCREEN Survey 2026 (Student Cyber Resilience Education and Empowerment Nationwide) was carried out by our implementing partner Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC) under the Digital Champions Programme funded by BT Group via the British Asian Trust.
It was launched by our Executive Director, India Bharath Visweswariah at the Youth in the Loop Summit by Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC), held as part of the AI Impact Summit India 2026 series of events.
Key findings include:
Online harm is more likely to come from people known to young people than from strangers.
- The survey finds that 37.9% of young people have experienced unwanted contact from known persons (friends, classmates, acquaintances, sometimes family), compared with 23.4% from strangers.
- For 17–18 year-olds, this jumps to 53.1% – marking late adolescence as a particularly vulnerable transition.
- This fundamentally shifts the narrative away from “stranger danger” alone, towards intra‑network risk and the complex dynamics of peers and relationships online.
Safety-tool literacy is low where it’s needed most.
- Only 37.1% of young people say they can use reporting/blocking/moderation tools effectively, while 21.0% are completely unaware such tools exist – rising to 38.2% among 11–13 year‑olds and 29.3% in rural areas.
- The youngest and many rural users are online without practical safety capabilities.
Young people are spending up to 6 hours a day on their screen, with a quarter checking their phones immediately on waking. Heavy, habitual use clusters with emotional strain.
- The most common pattern is 3–6 hours a day on the phone.
- 26.0% check their phone immediately on waking, and those who do are more likely to report feeling tired, irritated or mentally exhausted after extended use.
The findings reinforce that online safety for young people in India - especially girls - cannot be addressed through awareness alone. It requires systems that integrate education, protection, wellbeing, and opportunity, and recognise the realities of constant digital engagement.
At British Asian Trust, alongside BT Group, we work to strengthen such systems by enabling safer digital pathways for young people through our programmes and partnerships. Research such as this plays a critical role in informing how digital inclusion efforts can be designed to expand opportunity while actively safeguarding those most at risk.
