# Transcript

The children have training in internet safety. We recognise that actually having taken the internet away and sanctioning is not helping the young people because at the end of the day this is their life. This is what they need all the time and also as they go into employment the internet is going to be there so our kind of philosophy on it is to teach them better ways and to help them keep safe online. So what we do we have got planned online safety programmes that are led through the ICT lessons and also this is readdressed in tutor times as well.

Within my group work I address pornography and we look at fantasy versus reality and the fact that actually pornography isn’t actually real. They think it’s real because they’re watching it but actually it’s quite violent and they do things that perhaps in a normal loving relationship people wouldn’t want to do. We explore that and we talk about it open and honestly so that the young people have a clear understanding that actually pornography is not real.

Recently I’ve been involved with a case. Her name was Jess and she’s a looked after child in the foster care system. She’s particularly vulnerable because she has been in and out of several different foster placements since two years old. She has obviously been through the trauma of going into care from birth and then moved so many different times and then she was placed with us when she was twelve. She became a little bit more settled but she liked her internet and at the weekends she used to go home to her foster placement. She had a love of makeup, hair, fashion.

She used to take lots of selfies of herself and then when one night she was at home on her own and doing what she does on the internet she made a fake Facebook account and put on her profile where she lived, the settings and her phone number and she also put her address on. She also, within that device, her location settings were set on so you know that means that some people outside can find you. She started posting her pictures, her modelling pictures, her selfies and she made herself up with all her makeup. Some of the pictures were quite provocative and then she was chatting with her friends and then this message came up from a lady saying, oh I like your picture.

Showing an interest in that she said thank you and then the lady said to her you are absolutely beautiful and the girl was really taken, all girls like to feel beautiful. This lady then made her feel really special and wanted and Jess started opening up to her saying she was unhappy and she’d been through the care system but she really, really as she gets older, wants to be a model. The woman then started to manipulate, saying you could be a model, I know someone. Just send me some more pictures. I can help you. The woman showing interest in her, again complimenting her all the time now developing her trust in a warming relationship. The woman now said well I do know someone but I need to see you topless. Is that okay? Jess complied because she thought she was gonna be a model and the woman replied she wants to come over to her house and do some real pictures. Jess at that point got scared and said no.

The woman said to her if you don’t let me come to your house I will share your naked pictures with all your friends and all your family and then she text back her address and I know where you live and actually wrote her address. Luckily Jess at that time turned everything off and came to see a member of staff and disclosed this. At the time we were really scared for her because we thought who is this woman.

She talked to the staff and the staff obviously then passed it on to the designated safeguarding lead which is where I got involved. Having seen this information we were really concerned about who this woman was and so we called the police and we also made a referral to social services. Within 24 hours the police went round to Jess’s house and removed all the devices. This actually took nearly eight months for the police to actually go through the device and find out exactly have had gone on. It was concerning because obviously this woman did have this girl’s address so we did put safeguarding concerns in place. We let the foster carers know and, you know, they kept a close eye. After the investigation was over a man of 48 years old was arrested for sexual abuse online for ten girls all under the age of twelve.