#metoo and pre-teen relationship cultures: Investigating cyber-sexual sexual harassment in the lives of 10-12 year olds

Aims:
1. To understand pre-teen perspectives and experiences of cyber-sexual harassment
(i.e. heterosexual, homophobic and transphobic harassment).
2. To explore how new formations of gender and sexuality mediate children's
perspectives and experiences of cyber-sexual harassment and how these are
mediated by social, cultural and embodied markers of difference (e.g. gender,
sexuality, faith, social class, locale etc.)
3. To use the research findings to create a co-produced educational resource with
students and teachers that can inform the new statutory RSE curriculum starting in
2020 (England) and 2022 (Wales).

This proposal addresses contemporary research gaps in a significantly under researched area. The
knowledge concerned includes cyber-sexual harassment in an increasingly digital world, how pre-teen
children navigate these digital spaces in a post #metoo context, and an understanding of pre-teen
relationship cultures including non-heterosexual relationships and non-binary and non-normative
genders (9). This research is particularly relevant due to children now growing up in the digital age
where they are "encountering continual technological innovation which brings new risks and
opportunities" (16., p.4).
Furthermore, the timing of this research gives an opportunity to support the introduction of the new
statutory Relationships and Sex/uality Education (12) by outlining what addressing the relationships
between e-safety and healthy relationships looks like within 'age appropriate' RSE. The findings of this
research would be transferable because it can be both applied to the Welsh and English context of
statutory RSE provision.