Young People’s Safety Survey

This study has now closed.

This study is being carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). For more information, see About us.

The study has been designed with children in mind and we have kept it as short as possible. We only collect the information we need to better understand our society. Your child’s response is really important to us.

This study will cover a range of topics, including:

• perceptions of safety and sources of support
• online activity
• experience of being a victim of crime and bullying
• personal well-being

If your child is aged 13 years and over, they will also be asked about:

• types of content they may have come across online (including sexual, self-harm, eating disorder and hate content)
• receiving and sending sexual messages

Your child does not need to have experience of any of these to take part. It is important that we hear from everyone to get an accurate picture of young people’s lives.

The information provided will help schools, charities and the government understand how to improve young people’s lives, including tackling bullying and protecting them from harm online.

Where possible, children should complete the study by themselves in private. This will help them to answer honestly.

If your child has special educational needs or disabilities, it is important that we also hear their views. Please use your own judgement on how much help they may need to complete the study.

Your child will be offered a £10 voucher as a thank you for completing both parts of the survey, or a £5 voucher if they just complete the first part.

Before your child starts, please check that the letter about the survey has been addressed to them. Only the young person who the letter is addressed to can take part.

If they are unable to or do not wish to take part, no one else can complete the survey in their place. They should complete the survey by the deadline given on their letter.

If you or your child, would like advice on any of the topics covered in this study, see further help and support.

Data Protection

The information you and your child give us is protected by law and treated as confidential in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. It will be combined with the data from across the country and will not be used to identify you or your child in any way. 

Your child's name and address was selected at random from the National Pupil Database (NPD), which is kept by the Department for Education (DfE). The ONS has been given permission to use these details for the purpose of this research only. 

Your child's name and nominated email address will be shared with Sodexo to send your child's e-voucher. Sodexo will not use this information for any other purposes. Eligible retailers are subject to change as per Sodexo's terms and conditions.  

For more information, see Data protection and social surveys.

This study has now closed.

Guidance on completing the survey

You should complete the survey by yourself in private if you can.

You can select “don’t know” to any questions you don’t know the answer to, and you do not have to answer any questions you don’t want to. Please answer as many questions as you can to ensure your experiences are counted.

If you need to, you can stop and come back to the survey to finish it at any time up until the deadline on your letter. Your responses will be saved, and you can continue where you left off.

If you are not able to come back to the survey before the deadline, the information you have shared with us is still useful. Saved data will be submitted and, where possible, will be used for analysis.

To keep your data secure, survey sections will automatically lock as you progress. This means your answers cannot be changed and cannot be seen by you or anyone else in your household.

At the end of the survey, you will be asked to provide an email address for us to send your voucher. You will be offered a £10 voucher as a thank you for completing both parts of the survey, or a £5 voucher for completing the first part.

If you don’t have an email address, you can ask for us to send it to your parent or guardian, or we can send your voucher by post.

Support for children and young people

If you are a child or young person and need further help or advice, see Mind's list of useful contacts for young people. 

Support for parents

If you are a parent and you need further help or advice, see Mind's list of useful contacts for parents.

For more information about social surveys, see Our studies. 

If you have any queries, please call our Survey Enquiry Line on 0800 085 7376 

Minicom users should dial 18001 before this number. The opening times are: 

9am to 6pm Monday to Friday
9am to 1pm Saturday