Utah ranked as the greatest state in 2024 for children’s internet safety by a study

Salt Lake City, Utah – A recent survey conducted by the internet security software provider Cloudwards indicates that Utah has the best online child protection rates in the country.

According to the company, the purpose of the study is to promote good family transformation and increase public knowledge of issues pertaining to children’s safety when using the Internet.

Due in large part to the state’s internet safety laws, Utah came in first place for children’s online safety in the research. The Beehive State does, however, also provide excellent mental health care and modest levels of internet safety threats and crimes, according to the study’s authors.

Hawaii’s strong mental health support system helped it rank second in the research. However the state did do better than Utah in terms of threats and crimes as well as cyberbullying.

Utah placed seventh in the study for mental health support. According to the authors, this is dependent on the availability of mental health specialists. They report that for every 100,000 residents in the state, there are 34.45 clinical and counseling psychologists and 20.24 child and adolescent therapists.

Utah came in twenty-first place for dangers to internet safety. 18 reports of crimes against children, 67 of harassment and stalking, and 16 of threats of violence were filed with the FBI in 2023.

Cyberbullying was identified by the research as one area in which Utah needed to improve. According to the study, 5% of kids in the Beehive State reported being cyberbullied, and 45% of them said they had been the victim of cyberbullies. A further 16.5% of high school pupils said they have encountered cyberbullying. Utah was placed 29th nationally in the research as a result of those variables.

North Dakota, Connecticut, and New Jersey completed the top five.

Oregon came in worst for cyberbullying, and California scored lowest overall for threats and crimes. These two states were at the bottom of the list.

Utah implemented new legislation in 2023 to limit young people’s access to social media. That would have restricted access to social media, requiring anyone under the age of 18 to obtain parental consent before using any platform. On the other hand, the laws have been the subject of numerous litigation and appeals.