Internet, Photographs and Mobile Phones
REGULATIONS AND STANDARDS
The Fostering Services (England) Regulations 2011:
Regulation 11 - Independent fostering agencies—duty to secure welfare
Regulation 12 - Arrangements for the protection of children
Regulation 14 - Duty to promote contact
Regulation 16 - Education, employment and leisure activities
Fostering Services National Minimum Standards
STANDARD 4 - Safeguarding Children
RELEVANT GUIDANCE
Internet Matters - advice for professionals, parents and young people on a wide range of digital safety issues including the digital passport.
Refuge and Risk: Life Online for Vulnerable Young People - research into the risks and dangers for vulnerable young people online. The report discusses the types of risk they encounter which is exacerbated by the vulnerabilities.
NSPCC Report Remove Tool - The tool enables young people under the age of 18 to report a nude image or video of themselves which has appeared online. The Internet Watch Foundation will review these reports and work to remove any content which breaks the law.
UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS) Digital Passport - a communication tool to support children and young people with care experience to talk with their carers about their online lives.
Childnet Parents and Carers Toolkit - Resources that offer practical tips and advice on different aspects of keeping children safe online.
Child Safety Online - A Practical Guide for Parents and Carers whose Children are using Social Media
Sharing Nudes and Semi-Nudes: Advice for Parents, NSPCC
Talking to Your Child About Online Sexual Harassment (Children’s Commissioner)
The Dark Web Explained (for Professionals)
The Dark Web Explained (for Parents and Carers)
UK Safer Internet Centre - Resources for helping children and young people stay safe online, including details of the Professionals Online Safety Helpline.
FMSE Alert - The National Crime Agency's CEOP Education have issued an alert to education settings across the UK in response to the threat of ‘Sextortion’ or online blackmail.
Help if you're worried about 'sextortion' or online blackmail (Internet Watch Foundation)
Child sexual exploitation by organised networks Investigation Report
Child exploitation disruption toolkit (GOV.UK) - updated toolkit published 19/7/22
Contents
1. Introduction
Different ways of communicating with friends are important to a child/young person and are now a way of life from an early age. When a child is placed with foster carers, it is important to find out their background and whether the internet, photographs and mobile phones contributed towards any abuse so that you can plan their use safely for all children, and particularly those where it has been an issue.
Foster carers should ask their supervising social worker and the child's social worker for advice and information.
Carers' knowledge of different media will vary but it is important that they do all they can to safeguard children when using the internet and mobile devices.
The placement plan should identify any risks or issues associated with the use of a computer, mobile phone or gaming equipment particularly in relation to bullying, sexual exploitation or other risk-taking behaviours and where appropriate assess the risk and how safely to manage the child or young person's use. The use of social media/electronic communication as a way of maintaining contact with family and friends should be outlined in the child's Care Plan (see also Contact with Parents, Siblings and Others Procedure).
If a foster carer is concerned in any way about a child's behaviour or the child expresses something that the carer is worried about in relation to social media, they should discuss this with their supervising social worker.
There is a correlation between online risk and real-life vulnerability that means care-experienced children have an increased risk of encountering online harm. Young people with prior off-line vulnerabilities are at greater risk of harm online then children and young people with none. For example, young people with eating disorders, looked after children and young people and those with communication challenges may use technology to communicate and socialise in ways they cannot achieve without it. Denying online access to children can be abusive in itself (e.g., loss of opportunity to develop resilience, risk of alienation, risk of turning to secret devices).
2. Encouraging Safe Use of the Internet
Foster carers need to be aware that children who have experienced past trauma or have low self-esteem can be more vulnerable to the dangers associated with the internet. When communicating via the internet, young people tend to become less wary and talk about things far more openly than they might when communicating face to face.
The role of foster carers in helping children to learn how to use the internet safely is extremely important and they must ask for support and/or further training if they lack confidence or knowledge in this area.
Foster carers should support young people to use social media and electronic communication safely and offer advice on what a young person should do if they receive a message which is inappropriate or upsetting. If foster carers have any concerns about a child's online activities they should report it to the supervising social worker.
Foster carers should try and take part in a child's web browsing particularly for a new child in placement; school homework is an ideal opportunity for this. Foster carers should explain the web's positive and negative sides and tell them that if they are not sure about a site they should talk to you. Some useful guidelines are:
- Time limits on computers should be agreed with the child/young person;
- Appropriate internet security should be used on the computers to avoid access to inappropriate material;
- Carers should set clear ground rules on the use of the internet;
- Computers should be in areas of the house where adults can see what is being looked at rather than in a bedroom;
- If a young person has a laptop then decide with them where and when they can use it if they are accessing the internet;
- Carers should show an interest in the internet and encourage young people to be open about any concerns or problems;
- Never allow a child to arrange a face-to-face meeting with someone they "meet" on the internet without first speaking to the child's social worker;
- The child should never respond to messages that are rude, threatening, or makes them feel uncomfortable. Encourage the child to talk to you about messages like this. If the child receives a message or sees something online that you are concerned about, keep a copy and make a note in the daily record;
- Foster carers should discuss with a child/young person that people online may not be who they say they are.
Teaching the child to be cautious is important and can help when they start to use social networking sites like Facebook or X (formerly known as twitter). Foster carers need to be aware that most mainstream Social Networking sites impose a minimum age limit of 13 on their membership. This includes Facebook. It is therefore not appropriate for children under 13 years old to use social networking sites which are also used by adults. Prohibiting young people from using social networking sites is not realistic. A more effective way of helping to keep children safe when using social networking sites is to:
- Ensure young people set their privacy settings appropriately;
- Pay attention to what information the young person is posting; and
- Encourage young people to share their social networking experiences with an appropriate adult.
Foster carers should ensure the child's profile and postings contain nothing that might expose their identity or whereabouts.
It is important that the child and the carer understand the site's terms and conditions.
Carers should try to equip the child with the skills to decide who to trust, even when they have not met the person face-to-face and talk to the child/young person about what makes a real friend.
The Digital Passport is aimed specifically at Looked After Children, but may be a useful resource that can be adapted for any vulnerable child.
3. Risks
The internet and social networking sites can pose risks to children and young people, for example in relation to sexual exploitation and abuse, bullying and radicalisation.
In relation to sexual abuse, this can include:
- Exposure to pornographic or other offensive material via the Internet;
- Abusive images of children (although these are not confined to the Internet);
- A child or young person being groomed for the purpose of sexual abuse.
Social networking sites can be used by perpetrators as an easy way to access children and young people for sexual abuse. The Serious Crime Act 2015 introduced an offence of sexual communication with a child. This applies to an adult who communicates with a child and the communication is sexual or if it is intended to elicit from the child a communication which is sexual and the adult reasonably believes the child to be under 16 years of age. The Act also amended the Sex Offences Act 2003 so it is now an offence for an adult to arrange to meet with someone under 16 having communicated with them on just one occasion (previously it was on at least two occasions).
Internet abuse may also include cyberbullying. This is when a child is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another person or persons using the internet and/or mobile devices. In the case of online bullying it is possible for one victim to be bullied by many perpetrators. In any case of severe bullying it may be appropriate to consider the behaviour as child abuse by another young person.
Radical and extremist groups may use social networking to attract children and young people into narrow ideologies that are intolerant of diversity: this is similar to the grooming process and exploits the same vulnerabilities.
Children may be drawn to adopt a radical ideology through a failure to appreciate the bias in extremist material; in addition by repeated viewing of extreme content they may come to view it as normal.
The Online Safety Act 2023 introduced new criminal offences including:
- Sending a message with information the sender knows to be false with the intention of causing non-trivial psychological or physical harm to a likely audience without reasonable excuse;
- Sending a message with a threat of death, serious injury, rape or serious financial loss where the sender intends the recipient to fear that threat will be carried out (or is reckless as to whether the recipient has such fear);
- Sending or showing an electronic communication with flashing images with the intention to cause harm to a person with epilepsy;
- Communicating, publishing or showing material capable (and with the intention) of encouraging or assisting the serious self-harm of another, even if the sender cannot identify the recipients and even if the self-harm does not occur;
- Intentionally sending or giving images of any person’s genitals to another person with the intention to cause the recipient alarm, distress or humiliation, or for the purposes of sexual gratification whilst reckless as to whether the recipient will be caused alarm, distress or humiliation;
- Four offences in relation to intentional sharing or threatening to share intimate images without consent, which do not necessarily require proof that the sender intended to cause alarm, distress or humiliation. (This replaces the previous offences relating to so-called ‘revenge porn’ where there was a requirement for an intention to cause distress).
Sexually coerced extortion or ‘sextortion' is a type of blackmail where someone tries to use intimate, naked or sexual photos or videos of children and young people to make them do things they don't want to do. Sometimes, these photos or videos are taken without their knowledge, and the person uses these to blackmail the child and force them to pay money or do something against their will.
Criminals often target people who use dating apps, social media platforms, webcam/live streaming sites or websites related to pornography. They might pretend to be someone else online and become friends with the child. Later, they might threaten to share pictures or videos with a child’s family and/or friends. See: Internet Watch Foundation, Help if you're worried about 'sextortion' or online blackmail.
See also: UK Safer Internet Centre, Sextortion.
The National Crime Agency's CEOP Education have issued an alert to education settings across the UK in response to this threat FMSE Alert. The alert will help professionals to:
- Recognise and understand financially motivated sexual extortion;
- Raise awareness and help seeking behaviours amongst children and young people;
- Give suitable messaging and support to parents and carers; and
- Support victims of financially motivated sexual extortion.
4. Indicators
The initial indicators of online abuse in children are likely to be changes in behaviour and mood. Clearly such changes can also be attributed to many innocent events in a child's life and cannot be regarded as diagnostic. However changes to a child's circle of friends or a noticeable change in attitude towards the use of computer or phone could have their origin in abusive behaviour. Similarly a change in their friends or not wanting to be alone with a particular person may be a sign that something is upsetting them.
Children often show rather than tell that something is upsetting them. There may be many reasons for changes in their behaviour, but if foster carers notice a combination of worrying signs they should seek help or advice. They should contact their supervising social worker. A list of sources of further information and support organisations is in the Relevant Guidance section at the top of this chapter.
5. Photographs
If it is OK to take pictures or videos always ask the child's permission first and make sure they are clear on who will see them and why.
Foster carers should try and take photographs regularly of the child/young person to help record their life; it may also help when putting together their Life Story book.
Carers should be clear on who can give consent for the child to have their picture taken or be filmed for school etc.
6. Mobile Phones
Mobile phones offer text messaging, taking pictures, sending and receiving them, sending and receiving video clips and sound tracks, as well as access to the internet which means a child can download pictures and videos.
With a camera phone a child/young person can also send pictures of themselves, friends and where they live, which can have security implications for some looked after children.
Mobile phone network providers operate a barring and filtering mechanism to prevent those under 18 years accessing 18 rated content. The service can be provided for both contract and pay as you go phones. Foster carers are advised to explore this with the network provider that a child/young person uses or see what other services they offer.
7. AI Imagery
Artificially generated child sexual abuse material describes images of child sexual abuse that are partially or entirely computer-generated. They are usually produced using software which converts a text description into an image. This technology is developing rapidly, the images created can now be very realistic, and recent examples are difficult to differentiate from unaltered photographs.
Many popular, publicly available artificial intelligence tools automatically block attempts to create abusive material, but the large number of child sexual abuse images made using them that have been detected show that individuals have found ways around this. Typically, they are made using publicly available artificial intelligence tools that can be used and manipulated to produce images, (and, increasingly, videos) depicting child sexual abuse.
8. Sharing Nudes and Semi-Nudes
This advice uses the term ‘sharing nudes and semi-nudes’ to mean the sending or posting of nude or semi-nude images, videos, or live streams by young people under the age of 18 online. This could be via social media, gaming platforms, chat apps or forums. It could also involve sharing between devices via services like Apple’s AirDrop which works offline. The sharing of nudes and semi-nudes can happen publicly online, in 1:1 messaging or via group chats and closed social media accounts. Nude or semi-nude images, videos or live streams may include more than one child or young person. The term ‘nudes’ is used as it is most commonly recognised by young people and more appropriately covers all types of image sharing incidents. Alternative terms used by children and young people may include ‘dick pics’ or ‘pics’. Many professionals may refer to ‘nudes and semi-nudes’ as:
- Youth produced sexual imagery or ‘youth involved’ sexual imagery;
- Indecent imagery. This is the legal term used to define nude or semi-nude images and videos of children and young people under the age of 18;
- ‘Sexting’. Many adults may use this term, however some young people interpret sexting as ‘writing and sharing explicit messages with people they know’ rather than sharing images;
- Image-based sexual abuse. This term may be used when referring to the nonconsensual sharing of nudes and semi-nudes.
Terms such as ‘revenge porn’ and ‘upskirting’ are also used to refer to specific incidents of nudes and semi-nudes being shared. However, these terms are more often used in the context of adult-to-adult non-consensual image sharing offences outlined in s.33-35 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019 and s.67A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Terms such as ‘deep fakes’ and ‘deep nudes’ may also be used by adults and young people to refer to digitally manipulated and AI-generated nudes and semi-nudes.