Keep Safe Online Don't share intimate images on the internet

A young woman from northwest England is taking a message to young teens to ‘keep safe online’ after falling prey to an online ‘catfishing’ scammer who persuaded her to post revealing photographs … and then blackmailed her to send more.

17-year-old 'Sally' says she was bullied from an early age and found High School hard, so she went online to find friends … one of whom appeared to be another young girl, who posted photographs, allegedly of herself. When Sally followed suit with several photos, the ‘girl’ revealed ‘herself’ to be a 30-year-old man.

Although Sally (then 13) immediately tried to break contact, he messaged her to say that he had screenshot everything she had sent, adding ‘I know where you live, I know what school you go to, and if you report me to the police, I’ll send them to everyone you know.’

Sally says she wanted to tell someone, but was afraid that he would carry out his threats, and only managed to break free when she told him she ‘felt suicidal’ … although he made contact again in early 2020, when Sally spoke to her mum, who called the police.

Rhiannon-Faye MacDonald of the Marie Collins Foundation says Sally’s experience is very typical, and many young people are posting intimate images. She quotes recent figures from the Internet Watch Foundation that 70% of 250,000 child sexual abuse webpages reported to them in 2021 involved ‘self-generated’ images .

She says taking selfies is now normal.

'taking selfies on a night out, taking photos of your food when you go to a restaurant. That also normalises taking intimate images.'

Sally says her online abuser was arrested in Bristol, and is now serving a long prison sentence after being convicted of grooming and exploiting a total of nine victims … although the police had warned her that he was just as likely to live abroad, where he would have been out of reach.

As part of her film, Sally spoke to a group of young people who reported image sharing in their own friendship groups, including one instance which resulted in online shaming and bullying, and another where a girl’s images were shared with her best friend.