The online environment became riskier for Generation Z in 2024, with eight out of 10 teens and young adults reporting exposure to at least one online risk. Encouragingly, despite that uptick in risk exposure, more teens said they sought help after experiencing a digital issue, and more parents reported checking in with their teens to help them better navigate online experiences. These factors combined to edge Snap Inc.’s Digital Well-Being Index (DWBI) to 63 in Year 3, up one percentage point from 62 in Years 1 and 2.   

Eighty percent of 13-to-24 year olds in six countries said they experienced an online risk in 2024, up nearly five percentage points from the first survey in 2022. Deception was common in these risk scenarios with 59% of Gen Z respondents noting they had engaged with someone online who lied about their identity. (Snap commissioned this research, but it covers Gen Z teens’ and young adults’ experiences across all online platforms and services, with no specific focus on Snapchat.)

“It’s sad and sometimes tragic that anyone – but especially young people – has to deal with deception and scams,” said ConnectSafely CEO Larry Magid. “Unfortunately, it is the reality for many people in email, text messages, chat, social media, and other online experiences. It reinforces the need for all stakeholders to up their game when it comes to education to reinforce media literacy and critical thinking skills along with enhanced technology and sensible legislation to help protect users of all ages.”

Snap is honored to join ConnectSafely, the official organizer of Safer Internet Day (SID) in the U.S., at this year’s national event marking SID’s 21st anniversary, where we will share some of our latest research findings. Celebrated in more than 100 countries, SID aims to empower young people and adults to use technology responsibly, respectfully, critically, and creatively. For the past three years, we’ve conducted cross-platform research into digital well-being and released the full findings as Snap’s ongoing contribution to SID. The results help to inform the overall technology ecosystem and add to the evidentiary base that assists us all in creating and fostering safer, healthier, and more positive digital experiences for everyone.       

Some encouraging trends

Reassuringly, the latest findings show that last year more Gen Zers (compared to previous years) said they spoke with someone or sought help after experiencing an online risk. Nearly six in 10 (59%) of 13-to-24-year-olds reported seeking help, up nine percentage points from 2023. Similarly, more than half (51%) of parents of 13-to-19-year-olds said they actively checked in with their teens about online life, also up nine percentage points from Year 2. Meanwhile, slightly more parents (45% v. 43% in Year 2) said they trust their teens to act responsibly online and don’t feel the need to actively monitor them. 

Another positive finding showed that “support assets” around young people continued to grow last year. Support assets are defined as people in a young person’s life, whether at home, school, or in the community, who Gen Zers can talk to about problems, who will listen to them, and believe they will be a success. Unsurprisingly, research consistently shows that young people with a higher number of support assets available to them enjoy stronger digital well-being. That’s why we all need to do our part to support teens and young adults both online and off.     

Below are some additional high-level findings from Year 3:

• 23% of the 6,004 GenZers surveyed in the six countries said they were victims of sextortion. More than half (51%) reported having been lured into certain online situations or having engaged in risky digital behaviors that could have led to sextortion. These include being “groomed” (37%), being “catfished” (30%), being hacked (26%), or sharing intimate imagery online (17%). (We released some of these findings last October.) 

• Gen Z’s involvement with intimate imagery online remained a blindspot for parents. Just 1 in five (21%) parents of teens said they thought their teen had ever been involved with sexual imagery online. In fact, more than a third (36%) of teens admitted to such involvement – a 15-percentage-point gap.

• 24% of Gen Z respondents said they had seen some sort of AI-generated images or videos that were sexual in nature. Of those who claimed to have seen this type of content, 2% said they believed the imagery was of a minor. (We released some of this data in November.) 

The results are part of Snap’s ongoing research into Gen Z’s digital well-being and mark the latest installment of our DWBI, a measure of how teens (aged 13-17) and young adults (aged 18-24) are faring online in six countries: Australia, France, Germany, India, the UK, and the U.S. We also survey parents of 13-to-19-year-olds about their teens’ exposure to online risk. The poll was conducted between June 3 and June 19, 2024, and polled 9,007 respondents across the three age demographics and six geographies. 

Year 3 DWBI 

The DWBI assigns a score of between 0 and 100 to each respondent based on their agreement with a range of sentiment statements. Individual respondent scores then generate specific country scores and a six-country average. Averaged across all six geographies, the 2024 DWBI ticked one percentage point higher to 63 from 62 in both 2023 and 2022. All things considered, this remains an average reading, but is net positive given the rise in risk exposure for both teens and young adults. For the third year running, India registered the highest DWBI at 67, underpinned once again by a strong culture of parental support, but unchanged from 2023. Readings in both the UK and the U.S. edged one percentage point higher to 63 and 65, respectively, while France and Germany remained unchanged at 59 and 60. Australia was the only country to see its DWBI inch lower by one percentage point to 62. 

The index leverages the PERNA model, a variation on an established well-being theory ¹, comprising 20 sentiment statements across five categories: Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Negative Emotion, and Achievement. Taking into account all of their online experiences on any device or app – not just Snapchat – over the preceding three months, respondents were asked to register their level of agreement with each of the 20 statements. For instance, “Generally felt what I did online was valuable and worthwhile,” in the Positive Emotion category, and “Have friends who really listen to me when I have something to say online,” under Relationships. (See this link for a list of all 20 DWBI statements.) 

Teens in Australia and Europe: Apply to our new Councils for Digital Well-Being 

Last year, to help animate our latest research and our ongoing commitment to teens online, we launched our inaugural Council for Digital Well-Being (CDWB), a pilot program for teens in the U.S., centered on listening, learning, and improving digital experiences for 13-to-16-year-olds. In short, that program has been enlightening, rewarding, and just plain fun – so much so that this year, we will expand it and add two new “sister” councils in Australia and Europe, including the UK. We expect to kick off the application processes in those geographies very soon.

Meantime, also in conjunction with SID 2025, some of our U.S.-based council members collaborated with the Family Online Safety Institute to share their thoughts on key digital safety topics for teens and parents. Check out this blog on the FOSI website to hear perspectives from our CDWB members on navigating social media safely, the importance of reporting concerns to platforms and others, suggestions for talking to parents about safety issues, and more. We thank FOSI for this unique opportunity and hope the guidance and pointers resonate with families around the globe.  

We’re excited to extend similar opportunities to young people in other parts of the world with the expansion of our CDWB program. Until then, we encourage everyone to do their part for digital safety today on SID and throughout 2025!   

Our Digital Well-Being research yields findings about Gen Z’s exposure to online risks, their relationships, and their reflections about their online activities over the preceding months. There is much more to the research than what we are able to share in a single blog post. For more about the Digital Well-Being Index and research, see our website, as well as this updated explainer, the full research results, each of the six localized country infographics: Australia, France, Germany, India, the United Kingdom and the United States, and a new document, “Voices for Digital Well-Being,” that compiles perspectives on the value of this research from some of our partners and collaborators.

— Jacqueline Beauchere, Global Head of Platform Safety