The online world is central to the lives of young people today but many aspects of this world are understudied. In particular, too little research has been done on young people's digital media use and its implications for wellbeing. In the last five years, there has been much progress in designing new data collection methodologies that make digital data collection easier.

In collaboration with the University of Utrecht, we are launching a large-scale study to investigate the health and well-being of young people in the UK. The purpose of this research project is to show how digital data donation can be used in research, and how this might offer us the opportunity to learn more about the online world.

What is Data Donation?

Data donation utilises social media users’ rights to access the data any social media platform collects on them. We have developed a software where individuals are able to see their social media data in an easy-to-read format, and if they feel comfortable doing so, share parts of this information with researchers in a private way.

This tool has been developed in close collaboration with data scientists and legal experts to ensure it is safe and GDPR compliant.