This summary guide is for any practitioner who has discovered or learnt about sexually abusive images of a child, or other online harms. It explains how how you can help the child by talking to them, ensuring they are protected and supported, and taking practical steps to remove the online content.
It is aimed at all practitioners whose work brings them into contact with children, such as youth workers, staff in schools/colleges and early years settings, playworkers, medical professionals, sports coaches, social workers and health visitors.
The context
Images relating to child sexual abuse (including videos, livestreams, and AI-manipulated or generated images) can come to light in different ways, such as through:
- police tracing
- discovery of images on a child or adult's phone or computer
- your being sent an image.
The child depicted in an image may or may not be aware that the image exists or has been shared. They may have consensually sent someone an image of themselves, or they may have been deceived, groomed or coerced to send sexual images.
Images are often linked to other online risks. Consider the different ways children might be harmed online, such as by:
- seeing harmful content
- being contacted by strangers
- being bullied, harassed and blackmailed
- being the subject of AI ‘nudification’ and ‘deep fake’ images
- being pressured to share private images.
Online risks often overlap rather than happening on their own. An online chat may escalate in a way that leads a child to feel pressured, manipulated or coerced into sharing a private image, which can then be exploited by someone to threaten, control or extort the child.
How may the child be feeling?
When a child is aware there are sexually explicit or abusive images of them, which may be being shared online, may:
- feel horrified, embarrassed, helpless and ashamed
- worry about who will see the images and what they will think
- feel increasingly distressed if they are being blackmailed or threatened
- feel confused and betrayed if they thought they were in a relationship with the person who has shared them
- blame themselves or think they were foolish to allow the images to be taken
- feel regret if they shared the images themselves.
“I just wanted to go up to their face and be like, ‘Look stop it now, delete things off your phone, I won’t tell anyone, just stop’, but I couldn’t because every time I tried to send a message it was, ‘shut up, you have no say in this’ … So I had no way that I could get power over them, like, no way I could get some control.”
“I don’t know what’s out there and I don’t know who’s watching and I don’t know what people are doing regarding to me and whether anyone’s planning anything, that’s what makes me feel bad.”
“I am embarrassed and humiliated and it’s horrible because now my mum and dad know what happened.”
“I wish that there’d been some sort of support or someone there when I was going through it all in the very beginning to tell me that it wasn’t my fault.”
For the sources of the quotations above, please download our full guide to this stage of the Response Pathway.
How can you best help the child?
- If you find or learn about images of a child you work with, talk to your organisation’s safeguarding lead to decide next steps, including considering how the child should be spoken to and how to include their parent(s) (provided it is safe to do so).
- Don’t copy, save or forward the images – not only can this add to the child’s distress, but it is an offence to do so. The only people who should be shown the images are the police; they can retrieve the device to do this.
- Consider what other online harms might be present and any other contextual factors.
- Remember that a child cannot consent to their own abuse. Even if images suggest that the child is ‘consenting’, you should assume that there was some coercion, grooming or deceit involved.
- The child’s safety and welfare should always be paramount. Consider whether making a referral to children’s social care is necessary, and how you can ensure that the child receives appropriate emotional support.
- Consider what steps should be taken to manage online safety, including supporting the child to stay safe online.
- If the person who has shared the images is another pupil in the child’s school, or another child in a club or activity group that they belong to, discuss with your safeguarding lead what action needs to be taken.
If the child displays physical or emotional symptoms that raise concerns about their physical or mental health, consider a referral to a sexual assault referral centre (SARC). Visiting a SARC and receiving support and advice can be reassuring for a child, even if a medical assessment is not required.
It’s important to try to find out more about what has happened to the child, as the images are only part what’s happened to them – but don’t be surprised if the child is too ashamed or embarrassed to talk to you at this point. They may be horrified to think that you may have seen the images, and will want to know who will see them or be told about them.
Your focus should be on ensuring they are safe and giving them an opportunity to talk to you if they want to, now or in the future. Any investigation will be for the police and children’s social care to conduct.
If the child does not already know about the images being in circulation. consult someone who knows the child to agree how and when to talk to them (or, if they are very young, their non-abusing parent(s)) and the key messages to give them.
- Tell the child that they have nothing to be ashamed of and are not to blame, while acknowledging that they may think they are – explain that they are likely to have been groomed, coerced, cajoled or deceived by someone who presented to them as someone they could trust, and whose behaviour is not their fault.
- Reassure them that only the police officers directly investigating the case will need to see the images – but do not make promises about deleting the images altogether, as there may be no way of doing so.
- Ask them whether anything is currently making them feel unsafe, and what would help them feel safer. Try to reassure them that, however difficult things may feel, it will get easier now that someone else knows and they have support.
- Understand how they use technology and why it is important to them, so you can consider how to keep them safe while minimising the impact on their everyday life – if they are worried that their devices will be removed or other restrictions placed on them, this may deter them from talking about what has happened to them.
- Be open that you will need to share information about what has happened with other professionals. Explain who else will be told and what you understand will happen next, assuring them that action will be taken to protect them from further harm.
- Ask them what they want to happen next, and what their hopes and fears are around this – but be honest that you may have to take actions or make decisions that are contrary to their wishes, and explain why.
- Ask the child whether there is an adult in their family or social network who they trust and feel comfortable to talk to. Explain that, with their permission, you will ensure that adult understands what is happening so that they can support the child.
All practitioners can help all children by letting them know how they can get help before something goes wrong:
- CEOP (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command within the National Crime Agency) has a Safety Centre providing information for children worried about online sexual abuse or the way someone has been communicating with them online; it also shows them how to make a report to a CEOP Child Protection Advisor.
- If children have experienced online sexual abuse or are worried this is happening to someone they know, they should contact the police on 101 or online at www.police.uk. (If they feel in immediate danger, they should call the police on 999 straight away and, if possible, inform an adult who they trust.)
- Children can contact Childline 24 hours a day, seven days a week, via online chat, email or phone (0800 111).
- Childline has advice on sexting and nudes for children so they know their rights, the law and what to do if something goes wrong.
- To support children and young people to take down sexual images shared online, read the NSPCC’s guidance on using the Report Remove tool.
What you can do to protect the child will depend on your role. For example, if you work in a school and the child has said it is another child at the school who is harming them, you can arrange to limit contact between them.
Consider whether action is needed to protect other members of the child’s family, particularly siblings, and what your role in this might be (or who you need to talk to).
If child sexual abuse images have been discovered or you have been told about them, a referral should be made to children’s social care following your local arrangements. Where there is a concern that the child is suffering significant harm or is likely to do so, an immediate referral should be made. You may also need to contact the police if you feel the child is in immediate danger.
It is good practice to tell the child’s parent(s) as well as the child that you will be making a referral, provided it is safe to do so.
Rather than removing the child’s access to devices, the child’s parent(s) should be supported to learn more about online safety, so they can better supervise and manage their child’s online activity and/or help the child understand how to stay safe online.
Consider whether the images may have been shared within the context of a consensual relationship without coercion or control; if they were, and they have not been shared more widely, the appropriate action may just be to advise the children about potential risks and ways to minimise the likelihood of harm.
External links
Sharing nudes and semi-nudes: Advice for education settings working with children and young people (England) [UK Council for Internal Safety]
Keeping safe online: Sharing nudes and semi-nudes (Wales) [Education Wales]
Online sexual harm reduction guide [Marie Collins Foundation/NWG]