The Awkward Social is a supervised online playground for autistic and neurodivergent young people.
Moderated by trusted adults. Built for safe gameplay, real friendships, and genuine connection.
Because no school lets children into the playground unsupervised. The internet should be no different.
From the founder
Something is changing. We’ve been ready for seven years.
The way children access the internet is about to change fundamentally. Governments are acting. Platforms are being held accountable. The conversation that parents of neurodivergent young people have been having for years — quietly, exhaustedly, often alone — is finally happening at a national level.
We didn’t build The Awkward Social in response to that conversation. We built it seven years ago, when a dad decided he wanted to keep his autistic son safe while playing Fortnite — and discovered that no platform was doing that job. So we built one.
Here’s what seven years has taught us: you can’t guarantee absolute safety online, any more than you can in the real world. But if you provide the right environment, trained trusted adults who are always present, and the tools for young people to speak up when something feels wrong — you get as close as it humanly gets. And in doing so, you unlock everything the internet can genuinely offer: real friendships, real connection, real belonging.
The platforms your child uses right now haven’t made those changes. Legislation may push some of them to try. Some may leave the UK rather than comply. Others will adapt just enough to avoid the fines. But here’s the harder truth: safety was never in their interests to begin with. These platforms are built to be addictive — engineered to maximise the time your child spends on them, not to protect them while they’re there. You cannot ask a business to dismantle the thing its entire model depends on. The question isn’t whether they’ve caught up. It’s whether they ever can.
The Awkward Social was built to be safe from the ground up — because that was always the only point. You don’t have to wait and hope the platforms get there. We already are.
Dan, Founder — The Awkward Social
As a parent of a neurodivergent young person, you probably feel cut off from that world. You don't know the games, the lingo, the platforms. And that distance from their world makes you feel distant from them.
Meanwhile your child is online, possibly alone, possibly making contact with strangers, possibly wandering into corners of the internet that aren't safe. You worry. And you're right to.
Your child is gaming every evening. But who are they actually talking to?
Here's what we do about it.
The Awkward Social exists to change that. For your child — a safe, supervised, genuinely fun space to game, connect, and build real friendships. For you — a window into their world. Community with other parents who get it. And the knowledge that a trusted, DBS checked adult is always in the room.
But it doesn't stop online. The Awkward Social also creates real world experiences. Low key meetups. Big events. Places where your child can build genuine social capital and start to find their place in the world.
And as they grow, there's a pathway. From participant to host. From connection to economic opportunity.
Because the neurodivergent journey is hard enough. It should also be fun. And it should lead somewhere.