child safety online natasha jetha child safety online team
TRANSCRIPT
Child Safety Online
Natasha Jetha
Child Safety Online Team
• Who are the NSPCC?• Why is the NSPCC concerned about children’s online safety?• The risks children face online:
• Cyber bullying• Online grooming• Child abuse images• Impact of child abuse images• Risks of child abuse images
• What is the NSPCC doing to keep children safe online?• Zipit app and IWF• Flaw in the Law• Share Aware• Net Aware
Contents
Who are the NSPCC?
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The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
We’re the leading children's charity fighting to end child abuse in the UK and Channel Islands. We help children who’ve been abused to rebuild their lives, protect those at risk,
and find the best ways of preventing abuse from ever happening.
We believe that every childhood is worth fighting for.
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The NSPCC
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What do the NSPCC do?
The internet is a wonderful, and new-ish thing!
• Children love technology• 84% visit sites to do homework• Unprecedented access to connected devices and content• 34% of 8-11 year olds own a tablet (Ofcom)• No conduct ‘norms’ and digital literacy levels catching up• 60% of 8-11 year olds say all or most of what they see on these websites is ‘true’
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Participation task:
In small groups of three or four discuss how the
internet has benefited you and changed the way you
work.5 minutes
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Why is the NSPCC concerned about children’s safety online
• Can’t escape it – 24/7 • No distinction• Smartphone and tablet ownership is increasing year on year (Ofcom)• Feel confident online; unconcerned about the risks• 65% increase in contacts to ChildLine about online issues• 168% increase in reports on online sexual abuse• 87% increase in counselling sessions about cyber-bullying• 85% of social workers want more support• Parents disempowered: 70% think their 12-15 year olds knows more about internet
than they do
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The risks children face online
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• Can include sexism, trolling, exclusion from groups, aggressive language, homophobia, pressure to conform
• In 2012/13 ChildLine saw 87% increase in contacts• In 2013/14 the number of ChildLine counselling sessions completed about cyber bullying
was 4,504• Majority from young people aged 12-18• One in five of all children• Children who bully
Potential impact• Feelings of humiliation• Inability to cope• Self-harming• Running away from home• Attempting suicide
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Cyber bullying
“Everyone seems to be turning against me. Whenever I look at my messages there’s something horrible about the way I look or about my personality. I’ve thought about ending my life because it gets me so down.”
Impacts and signs of bullying
Effects on children who bully others
Children and young people who bully are at increased risk of:
• substance misuse
• academic problems
• violent behaviour in later life
Effects on children who witness bullying
Children who witness bullying may show similar signs as children who are being bullied. They may:
•become reluctant to go to school•be frightened or unable to act•feel guilty for not doing anything to help.
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• Offenders will sweep/spam and look for the vulnerable child• In 2013/14, ChildLine dealt with 266 counselling sessions about ‘Online Grooming, and
115 counselling sessions about ‘Online Sexual Harassment’• The majority of these counselling sessions were with girls (67%) • The majority being 12-15 (66%)• Forums, chatrooms, gaming platforms, webcams• Vulnerable victims and risk taking victims• Think it’s their boyfriend
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Online grooming
Impact and signs
Impact
•Denial
•Humiliation
•Fear, desperation
•Trapped
•Blackmailed
•Complicit
•Betrayed
•Loss of confidence in own judgment
Signs•Secretive re what doing online•New phones you can’t account for •Slave to their device•Going to unusual places•Older friendship groups
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What children and young people have told us
I made such a mistake meeting up with a guy I met online. He was so nice to me and we had been speaking for ages so I thought I could trust him, but everything he said was a lie. He turned out to be much older than me, which I didn’t find out until we met up. As soon as I saw him I knew I needed to get away but he didn’t let me. He forced me to have sex with him even though I pleaded with him not to make me. I feel so ashamed of myself. (Girl, 12-15)
All names and potentially identifying details have been changed to protect the identity of the child or young person. Snapshots are created from real ChildLine contacts but are not necessarily direct quotes from the young person
I met someone online and they said they were the same age as me. We messaged for a while and spoke about personal things. I thought we were friends, but then they started threatening to hack into my account to post screenshots of the messages there. I’m really worried they actually will. What should I do? (Boy, 16-18)
Online grooming does not always lead to offline abuse
• Frequently seeing online abuse• Children and young people are threatened and blackmailed to perform sexual acts• These videos and pictures are harvested on the internet• CEOP – seeing this happen more quickly than before• Online abuse is as harmful as offline abuse
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• 81% of victims are under the age of 10• 32,000+ URLs removed in the UK in 2014 • 1.5million people have seen; 40,000 reports• Increasing amount of live streaming / abuse to order• Increasing monetisation of child abuse images• Where do victims come from?• CEOP - 50,000 offenders• Compulsive collectors• 55% correlation between contact and non contact offenders
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Child abuse images
Child abuse images continued…
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Impact and risk of child abuse images
Impact
•Impact of contact abuse to produce images
•Re online abuse, limited research: NSPCC has commissioned research
•Re-vicitmisation “The misconception that indecent images of children impacts less on victims needs to be dispelled”.
•Record of abuse – disempowering. “I don’t walk on the street because I’m scared paedophiles might follow me. I am scared because there are photos of me on the internet and paedophiles might have them.”
•Paranoia, fear, no ‘closure’
•Few tailored treatment programmes
Risks
Three risks to children:
1.Seeing a child abuse images accidentally
2.Risk from contact abuse from someone who has looked at images
3.Their own ‘sext’ being harvested: IWF study of self generated images: 88% harvested & uploaded to para-websites
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“I am scared because there are photos of me on the internet that other paedophiles know what I look like, I don’t know if they know where I live.”
“I am scared because there are photos of me on the internet that other paedophiles know what I look like, I don’t know if they know where I live.”
• Illegal even if willingly shared• Prevalence? Widespread• Gender imbalance, but pressure on both • 2013/14 ChildLine: 1,299 counselling sessions• When contact ChildLine the situation has escalated beyond their control• Lots reasons not to report: feel complicit, humiliation, fear of repercussions, blackmail• Signs: loss of self-confidence, withdrawn, Isolated
Potential impact • Humiliation, betrayal• Greater risk of bullying• Loss of control• Prosecution• Loss of self respect
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Self-generated images (“sexts”)
“I’m feeling really down at the moment. I used to sext but it’s stopped now. Everyone has found out and there are loads of rumours going round and people are bullying me. I hate myself and have started to self harm. I just don’t know what to do.”
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What children and young people have told us
“I sent a photo of myself to a boy I thought I could trust and now he has shown it to everyone. I feel so upset and like there is no point in living anymore. People at school are calling me names and laughing at me. I want it to stop but I don't know what to do.”
“I sent rude images to random guys online. I know it was really stupid but I was feeling so down about myself. I really regret doing it now – it was such a big mistake. Whenever I think about it, it makes me get upset. I’m so ashamed of myself.”
“I used to sext this guy last year and everyone found out. It caused me to lose all my friends and people hated me for it. People still call me nicknames and I feel left out of everything. It’s making school unbearable with everyone taunting me. I am so angry with myself that I made such a stupid mistake.”
Viewing harmful content and the impact of young people viewing pornography
I can’t get over what was happening to the woman in the film - it’s made me anxious. I've never had sex before but if that's what it’s like I'm scared. I don't know how I'm going to get over the images, they’ve really traumatised me. (Girl, 12-15)
Me and my boyfriend watch porn together a lot. I don’t mind because I enjoy it as much as he does. Recently though he’s started getting ideas and wants us to make our own video. I really don’t want to and I’ve told him that but he’s still trying to convince me. It’s making me upset because we’re arguing about it and I feel like he’s pressuring me into something that makes me uncomfortable. (Girl, 16-18)
I'm always watching porn and some of it is quite aggressive. I didn't think it was affecting me at first but I've started to view girls a bit differently recently and it's making me worried. I would like to get married in the future but I'm scared it might never happen if I carry on thinking about girls the way I do. (Boy, 12-15)
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Participation task:
In small groups of three or four discuss the benefits and
risks of children using the internet.5 minutes
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What is the NSPCC doing to keep children safe online?
Monitoring digital trends which may put children at risk online
• Most children go online at home using either tablets or mobiles. Wearable technology.• ‘Parent friendly’social networking sites • Dating sites e.g. mylol.com• Sexually aggressive environment• NekNominate• Vine, snapchat, kik• Self-harm selfies• Apps - GPS functionality & talk to a stranger
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Practical tools for young people
ChildLine and the Internet Watch Foundation working together
Campaigning: Flaw in the Law
• In November 2014 – the NSPCC launched its ‘Flaw in the Law’ campaign
• In November 2014 – the NSPCC launched its ‘Flaw in the Law’ campaign
• The aim of the campaign was to ask the Government to make it illegal to send a child a sexual message
• 50,000 signed our petition
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The law received Royal Assent in March!
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Educating parents – Share Aware campaign
Share Aware is an NSPCC campaign to help parents keep their children as safe as possible when they are socialising online.
It provides straightforward, simple advice to help parents untangle the web, understand what their children may be doing online, and feel confident in talking to them about how to stay safe.
We’re asking parents to be Share Aware – and keep children safe online.
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What is Share Aware?
Share Aware – ‘I saw your willy’
Share Aware - Lucy and the boy
Participation task:
In small groups of three or four discuss which social
networking sites or apps you use the most? Or if you use
any at all!5 minutes
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How does Net Aware work?
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How does Net Aware work (continued)
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Net Aware Guide: young people’s views
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• 48 sites reviewed by 1854 children• Most popular: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and
Minecraft. • Riskiest: Omegle, Chatroulette and Ask.fm. • 95% of children and young people had accessed social
networking sites and apps before the age of 13• For half of the sites, children said the minimum age should be
older • Main concerns were talking to strangers and sexual content.
The Net Aware Guide: parents’ views
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• 48 sites reviewed by 511 parents• For 37 of these sites - minimum age should be older • For half of the social networks it was difficult to find the
reporting/blocking features. • For 20 per cent of the sites – parents could not find where to go
to adjust the privacy settings• Parents reported not being able to find any safety information • Parents felt that all social networking sites were too easy to sign
up to• Harmful content seen - sexual followed by violent
