Young people in care benefit from the psychological, emotional and social support gained via social media networks - according to new research from the University of East Anglia's Centre for Research on the Child and Family (CRCF).
Until now, the automatic assumption has been that platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp only pose a risk for this vulnerable group.
But social media can help young people living in state care maintain healthy and appropriate birth family relationships and friendships, make new connections and ease transitions between placements and into adult independence.
The research is published today in the British Journal of Social Work, ahead of Safer Internet Day 2018 Tuesday, February 6, 2018.
Researchers investigated how young people living in state care can benefit from social media use.
Lead researcher Dr Simon Hammond undertook more than 100 visits to four residential care settings in England over seven months. During this period, he conducted in-depth observations on how 10 young people routinely used social media in their everyday lives, as well as conducting focus groups and interviews with the young people and their social care professionals.
Dr Hammond said: "Young people in care face harder, faster and steeper transitions into adulthood with fewer resources than their peers.
"Placement instability often leads to young people feeling abandoned and isolated at points in their lives when they are at their most vulnerable.
"The young people we worked with talked about how many friends or followers they had on social media. And it was the contacts outside their immediate state care environment that young people saw as their most precious commodity."