Make sure your home doesn’t have an open door to child sexual abusers.

Follow the TALK checklist to help keep your child safe online.

1 in 4 teenagers receives unwanted sexual messages online.*

Does your home have an open door to child sexual abusers?

Increasingly, young people are being contacted in their own homes on online platforms and apps and asked for sexual pictures and videos, while their parents and carers are totally unaware.

There is a significant rise in children being groomed and coerced online by abusers into sexual activities often in their own bedrooms and bathrooms. Those abusers record this content via webcams or livestreaming services and share it across their networks online. This type of child sexual abuse is now the predominant type of sexual abuse imagery found on the internet.

This is happening now, and it can happen to anyone’s child. But you can do something about it; you can help prevent it happening to your child.

* Childnet, deSHAME Executive Summary, page 4 

The scale of online child sexual abuse is hard to comprehend.

Since the start of the pandemic, the amount of online child sexual abuse imagery has increased dramatically.
In 2022, we investigated 375,230 reports of child sexual abuse imagery, a rise of 4% on 2021. Almost 200,000 (199,360) webpages showed child sexual abuse images and videos that were made by sexually exploiting a child online using an internet connected device with a camera, as opposed to an abuser being physically present in the room with the victim/s.

What can parents
and carers do?

TALK to your child about online sexual abuse. Start the conversation – and listen to their concerns.

AGREE to ground rules about the way you use technology as a family. 

LEARN about the platforms and apps your child loves. Take an interest in their online life.

KNOW how to use tools, apps and settings that can help to keep your child safe online.

Download the TALK resource

All parents and carers need to be aware of the risks of online child sexual abuse and the scale of the issue affecting children today. Please help us spread the word. Read and share our downloadable guide for parents and carers.

Need help now?

If you think a child is in immediate danger, phone 999.
 
If you’d like advice, guidance or if you’re worried about a child, we’ve compiled a list of organisations that can offer help, support and a place to report concerns.
 
There are also links to further online safety resources and links to the online safety pages of major social media platforms.