Our research has found that one in five parents (21%) know a child who’s experienced online blackmail.
Online blackmail is when someone threatens to share things about a child online if the child doesn’t do what they demand.
Examples of online blackmail could involve third parties using intimate images or videos of a young person or information about their sexuality gained from private online conversations to threaten, coerce or exploit them.
Blackmailers often use private messaging platforms to communicate their threats to children and young people – sometimes actively moving conversations with children into these private spaces after starting them on more open platforms.
Online blackmail can have significant lasting consequences for young victims. It’s been linked to self-harm, eating disorders, suicidal feelings and, in the most devastating cases, resulted in suicide among children and young people.
Our survey also revealed that one in three parents felt that tech companies and the Government were failing in their duty to protect children from online blackmail. Instead, parents felt that charity organisations, schools and educators were doing much more to help prevent this harm.
