🧵 4/4
As the scale of these harms continues to grow, meaningful progress will depend on coordinated action — with prevention at its core.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #childprotection #childsafeguarding #childsafety #safeguarding #AI #AIharms #onlineharms
🧵 2/4
Alongside these findings are renewed calls for stronger action, including embedding technologies on children’s devices to prevent nude images from being created, shared, or received in the first place.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #childprotection #childsafeguarding #safeguarding #AI #onlineharms
🧵 1/4
Where platforms were identified, over 40% of offences took place on Snapchat, with Meta platforms accounting for almost a quarter.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #childprotection #childsafeguarding #childsafety #safeguarding #AI #AIharms #onlineharms
🧵 6/6
As these figures show, tackling online exploitation requires continued collaboration across technology, policy & practice along with a sustained focus on both prevention & support.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #sextortion #sexploitation #childsafety #childsafeguarding
🧵 5/6
Alongside these findings, there are renewed calls for stronger action from tech companies, including improved detection tools & more robust safeguards to prevent harm before it occurs.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #sextortion #sexploitation #childsafety #childsafeguarding
🧵 4/6
The emotional impact can be devastating, with some cases tragically linked to suicide.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #sextortion #sexploitation #childsafety #childsafeguarding
🧵 3/6
Sextortion often begins with grooming. Offenders use manipulation, reassurance & trust-building to encourage young people to share intimate images, before escalating quickly to threats, coercion & blackmail.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #sextortion #childsafety #childsafeguarding
🧵 2/6
The data also shows that boys aged 14–17 are disproportionately affected, accounting for 98% of reported cases.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #sextortion #sexploitation #childsafety #childsafeguarding
🧵 1/6
In 2025 alone, 394 reports of blackmail were made by under-18s — a 34% increase on the previous year.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #sextortion #sexploitation #childsafety #childsafeguarding
New figures from the Report Remove service highlight a deeply concerning trend: online sextortion attempts against children are rising in the UK.
🔗 tinyurl.com/3pxcze49
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#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #sextortion #sexploitation #childsafety #childsafeguarding
🧵 4/4
Listening to young people is not an optional extra; it is a necessary part of building effective responses to online harm.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharm #childprotection #childsafeguarding
🧵 3/4
This is why initiatives like this matter. Creating space for young people to share their perspectives is essential if we want safeguarding efforts to reflect the realities of digital life.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharm #childprotection #childsafeguarding
🧵 2/4
It highlights something many of us working in this space recognise: young people often feel that their experiences are not fully understood & that their voices are not always reflected in how online safety is approached.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharm #childprotection #childsafeguarding
🧵 1/4
Created with input from the NSPCC’s Voice of Online Youth group, the series explores topics such as AI, screen time & online safety through the perspectives of young people themselves.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharm #childprotection #childsafeguarding
A new four-part YouTube series from ChildLine, Where We Stand, offers a valuable insight into how young people experience life online — and, importantly, how they want to be heard.
🔗 tinyurl.com/f3jshv35
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#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharm #childprotection #childsafeguarding
🧵 4/4
As discussions continue around regulation & restrictions, this initiative is an important reminder that equipping people to talk openly & confidently about online experiences is a key part of safeguarding.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #childsafety #childsafeguarding #childprotection
🧵 3/4
The campaign highlights a key challenge: much of children’s online experience happens out of sight, making it harder for parents to know when and how to start these conversations.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #childsafety #childsafeguarding #childprotection
🧵 2/4
It comes in response to research showing that half of parents do not regularly speak to their children about these risks.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #childsafety #childsafeguarding #childprotection
🧵 1/4
The “You Won’t Know Until You Ask” campaign, being piloted in Yorkshire & the Midlands, aims to support parents in starting conversations about issues such as body-shaming, misogyny, & harmful content on social media.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #childsafety #childsafeguarding
A new UK government initiative is placing a spotlight on an important but often difficult question: how do we talk to children about harmful online content?
🔗 tinyurl.com/2nejff7k
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#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #childsafety #childsafeguarding #childprotection
👉 Girlguiding. Transgender children. The sixth of September. The Cass Review said what the Tavistock wouldn't. Now the door is closing. The child nobody asked. bit.ly/4dH5Faz #Girlguiding #TransgenderChildren #CassReview #GenderDysphoria #ChildSafeguarding @lbc.co.uk @benkentish.bsky.social
🧵 4/4
Listening to these perspectives is essential if we want to create digital environments that genuinely protect & support young people.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #socialmediaban #childprotection #childsafeguarding
🧵 2/4
Others highlight the challenges of enforcement, noting that age restrictions did not always prevent access to platforms like Instagram, TikTok & Snapchat.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #socialmediaban #childprotection #childsafeguarding
🧵 1/4
Some describe the ban as an opportunity to step back & realise that social media wasn’t as important in their daily lives as they had thought.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #socialmediaban #childprotection #childsafeguarding
A recent video captures Australian teenagers reflecting on their experiences of the country’s social media ban — & their responses are mixed.
🔗 www.instagram.com/reels/DWL0HO...
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#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #socialmediaban #childprotection #childsafeguarding
🧵 5/6
These communicative practices are central to how harm is organised & sustained — &, importantly, how it can be identified & disrupted.
#DRAGON #Ofcom #onlinesafety #onlineharms #childprotection #childsafeguarding
🧵 4/6
At DRAGON, this resonates strongly with our own research. We have explored how online child sexual abuse offender communities use language to discuss, share, & circulate grooming-related content.
#DRAGON #Ofcom #onlinesafety #onlineharms #childprotection #childsafeguarding
🧵 3/6
A key contribution of this work is its focus on understanding how offenders operate & interact online — an essential step in designing more effective prevention and intervention strategies.
#DRAGON #Ofcom #onlinesafety #onlineharms #childprotection #childsafeguarding
🧵 2/6
It also underscores how platform design, anonymity, & accessibility shape offender behaviour, while pointing to the potential of well-designed deterrence measures to disrupt harmful activity.
#DRAGON #Ofcom #onlinesafety #onlineharms #childprotection #childsafeguarding
🧵 5/5
Tackling online harms requires coordinated action across regulation, research & practice. These remarks are an important reminder that safeguarding children online must remain a shared priority.
#DRAGON #onlinesafety #onlineharms #childprotection #childsafeguarding
