Don't be exposed

Children and young people continue to spend more time online and on screens, so it’s even more important that we all understand the risks, and how they can prevent themselves from being exposed and protect themselves online.

What can appear to start as an innocent conversation can turn to abuse in just a matter of hours – from accepting an unknown friend request, to being threatened and your ‘nudes’ being exposed online.

Grooming can happen on any digital device and on multiple online platforms, including gaming and social media such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.

This video highlights the dangers of online grooming and how easily young people can fall victim to intimate image abuse, watch it here:

A recent report from the College of Policing indicated that one fifth of girls aged 11-16 and one third aged 17-21 have received unwanted sexual images online. We know it’s happening to boys too.

Any child can be a victim of online grooming. But they are not to blame, the blame lies solely with the offender.

Since the introduction of the Online Safety Act 2023, under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 it is a criminal offence to:

• share unsolicited intimate images or film online, also known as ‘cyberflashing’.
• share or threaten to share non-consensual intimate images or film of another person online, also known as ‘revenge porn’.