Adele Taylor
Senior Manager, Youth Programs and Partnerships, NoFiltr at Thorn
What’s your organization’s mission, and what’s your area of focus?
Thorn is a nonprofit that builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse and exploitation in the digital age. I spearhead our NoFiltr brand — NoFiltr’s mission is to empower young people with resources to safely navigate sexual exploration and risky encounters in their connected world. Our promise is to foster a community that inspires open and honest dialogue, to operate without judgment, and to empower young people with practical knowledge they can use in their day-to-day lives. I’ve been here for three and a half years and love my role, in which I speak, educate, and empower youth about digital safety, sharing real experiences and advice, with the help of youth perspectives.
What led you to this work?
Throughout my travels, as an undergrad, and while working on my master’s, I’ve always volunteered at nonprofits, with my sweet spot being anything that has to do with youth and education. I was at dosomething.org prior to joining Thorn — their mission is also to educate and empower youth, activating them about different social justice issues. One of my colleagues said, “You would be great for this new position at Thorn!”, so I researched Thorn and I fell in love with it. Being able to work with youth directly, and in the prevention ecosystem building better, safer services and products that youth can use online is super intriguing to me.
What have you learned in the course of doing this work about young people’s wellness while engaging with tech and interactive media?
I think the most surprising thing I’ve learned is that youth really value companies and nonprofits that focus on their digital wellbeing, and that build products and services that help them navigate their online world. A lot of youth talk about the importance of maintaining a positive digital wellbeing and unfortunately, they may not receive that information via their schools, at home or from their parents, or their other environments. So they’ve really taken on doing the homework of finding balance and healthy engagement themselves.
That’s one of the reasons I love the work we do — it really focuses not just on making sure youth understand online grooming and sextortion and building an exit strategy, but also on what it means to show up as a good digital citizen, both for your community and for yourself. Our Youth Innovation Council that we work with throughout the year, have really shown me how much youth want to be a part of the conversations and how they are ready to help build a safer internet for themselves as well as their peers.
What guidance or advice do you have for parents and other caregivers to help kids build and maintain their wellness when engaging with digital media and technology?
I would definitely say, first, have conversations early. We know through our own research at Thorn that kids are going online as young as nine years old, and that was not the case a couple of years ago. We’re now dealing with a generation that is growing up with technology that’s so different from those who are now in important roles within the tech communities. This means different perspectives, of not only the people building the digital ecosystem, but also of parents, caregivers, and educators who need to be having important conversations starting when kids are young, instead of just trying to talk to them when they find out that a child is wanting to join a platform, or that they are already on it.
One of the things we talk about a lot at NoFiltr is the importance of parents and caregivers remembering that 13- to 18- year olds are in a completely different arena, headspace-wise, emotionally, and physically. I think sometimes as adults, we forget that we were once that age, maybe not in the same environment or the same circumstances in terms of technology, but we still did things we weren’t supposed to, and maybe even went behind our parents backs. I encourage parents, caregivers and educators, to not only talk to youth about digital wellness early, but to try to do so in a way that is going to be received well, that doesn’t victim blame, that doesn’t shame, and that builds a holistic, ongoing conversation. The focus should be on how they can show up as their best authentic and positive self, rather than imitating a person or group of people, or trying to fit in. I think that narrative and language is really important.
How would you change or design technology and/or media to be healthier for kids across the developmental span?
I would love it if all companies could take a “safety by design” approach. We have done a lot of research and work at Thorn in this area, but I think when it comes to youth, a lot of times platforms will build the product or the feature and just send it out. Then they have to backtrack and modify it when something goes wrong, or when they are receiving negative publicity for a product, filter or feature.
And I would really love it if companies would think through community guidelines before they build a new product, feature, or function. It’s also important to utilize youth voices and insights into what they are developing and designing. One of the reasons to do that, besides the safety factor, is to make sure that youth feel equipped and empowered to use their platforms in a productive way — this is extremely important when you’re talking about digital wellbeing. A lot of times youth mention that they don’t know where community guidelines are, or they don’t receive assistance after they’ve reported something. This is why I would love to see platforms take a more safety by design approach from the beginning of the process. At NoFiltr we provide tech companies of all sizes with the opportunity to sit down with our Youth Innovation Council of 13-18 year olds to brainstorm creative solutions surrounding youth digital safety on their platforms, and even help them build creative content for their audience.
We also need more educational resources that are focused on safety and wellness for the people designing and building the platforms youth are engaging with.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
- NoFiltr’s Resource Hub is really unique and special because it’s written for youth, by youth and features real insights on how youth can come together
- NoFiltr’s Social Pages feature great content from our Youth Innovation Council as well as some of the brands we’ve created digital safety content with.
- This blog post about Thorn’s Safety By Design initiative, led last year by Dr. Rebecca Portnoff, Head of Data Science at Thorn. It contains great information and suggestions related to Generative AI.
- Check out our hashtags across different social media platforms: #NoFiltr #NoFiltrTalks #DigitalCitizenship #DigitalMindfulness
The last thing I would add is that we need to be educating youth collectively, rather than leaving them on their own to figure it out, or relying on individual parents and caregivers to know what to do. I understand this can be challenging, but we need to be working together as part of the prevention ecosystem so that youth can explore the online world safely and also include their voices into the conversations we as adults are having about their safety online.
We know that no one person, organization, or company can successfully address the challenge alone, so it’s imperative that we collaborate to design and maintain a healthier digital experience for all young people and their families. Our Fellow Travelers blog series features colleagues from around the world who focus on digital wellness from a different perspective than the Digital Wellness Lab, enabling us to share expertise in key areas of digital wellness that we don’t explore as deeply.
Here at the Lab, we welcome different viewpoints and perspectives. However, the opinions and ideas expressed here do not necessarily represent the views, research, or recommendations of the Digital Wellness Lab, Boston Children’s Hospital, or affiliates.