Marie Collins Foundation - Stop It Now

Healing for Children who have been 

Victimised Online 

A Global Webcast 

Produced for Stop it Now! USA 

by 

Tink Palmer 

CEO 

Marie Collins Foundation 

8 th December, 2011

The aims of today’s presentation 

• To enable participants 

• to consider the nature of the impact of online 

initiated abuse on victims and their families 

• To reconsider current practice in the light of the 

identified need for change in relation to children 

and young people abused via the internet and 

mobile technologies 

Marie Collins Foundation

Central messages! 

• We are all on a steep learning curve 

• We have some answers – but not very many 

• Use this time to think imaginatively about how we 

might do things differently 

• Your thinking may well help influence good practice 

for the future 

• Think “out of the box”! 


Webcast Rules! 

1. Show respect 

2. Take responsibility seriously 

3. Work hard – always do your best 

4. Treat everyone fairly 

Source: Kell bank primary school 


The Marie Collins Foundation 

A credo 

• “Every experience in life, everything with which we 

have come into contact in life, is a chisel which has 

been cutting away at our life statue, moulding, 

modifying, shaping it. We are part of all we have met. 

Everything we have seen, heard, felt, or thought has 

had its hand in moulding us, shaping us” 

American author Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924) 


The Marie Collins Foundation’s 

six point plan 

• Work in partnership with other agencies, both within 

the UK and internationally, to raise awareness 

regarding the abuse of children and young people via 

the internet and mobile technologies. 

• Offer services to children, young people and their 

families affected in this way. 

• Provide training for professionals who work with 

children and young people – social workers, 

teachers, health professionals and police. 


The Marie Collins Foundation’s 

six point plan continued 

• Offer consultancy to professionals assisting children 

and young people in their recovery from harms they 

have experienced via the new technologies. 

• Lobby and influence governments and international 

stakeholders to better protect children and young 

people when online and to provide appropriate 

responses to their recovery needs when harmed. 

• Engage the media in responsible and informed 

debate regarding the impact of abuse on children and 

young people when harmed via the internet and 

mobile technologies. 


Mary Kozakiewicz and her daughter Alicia 

• “The internet is possibly the greatest social 

experiment of all time but one in which children can 

be the sacrificial guinea pigs. I use the analogy of a 

loaded gun. No one warned us about it yet they 

blamed us when the kids started to shoot 

themselves” 


Background and context 

• “It’s not so much what was done to me but what it did 

to my head” 

Marie Collins 


WCIII, 2008- changes since WCII, 2001 

• Increase in countries developing definitions and laws 

related to abuse through the new technologies 

• Advance in the capacity of law enforcement to 

respond nationally and internationally 

• An acknowledgement that the problems require a 

multi-agency and multi-sector approach 

• Increased education, particularly of children, and 

inclusive of children 


Unresolved challenges? 

• Lack of critical understanding of the harms posed by 

the new technologies 

• Lack of training, expertise and capacity to investigate 

such crimes against children, to protect them from 

harm and assist in their recovery. 


UNICEF - Sexual abuse and exploitation in the 

converged online/offline environments: referral 

services and rehabilitation -11 recommendations 

• An international Forum for professionals working with 

victims of online abuse should be established to enable 

shared learning resulting in informed practice 

• Current ways of interviewing child victims of internet 

related crimes for evidential purposes need reviewing and 

good practice models developed 

• Good practice models need to be developed for 

assessment and intervention programmes for children 

abused online 


Recommendations 

• Strategies, procedures and intervention models for young 

people with sexually problematic and harmful behaviours 

online need developing within a child development context 

and one that recognises the dual requirement to address 

both the protection needs and the criminal justice issues 

posed by the young person’s behaviour 

• Training programmes regarding the impact of online 

abusive behaviours on children and their families ,and their 

recovery needs, should be developed for professionals 

working with traumatised children 


Child sexual abuse per se 

• What hasn’t changed: some static statistics 

• Most adult survivors didn’t disclose as children and 

don’t disclose as adults - silencing of children 

• 1 in 6 children are victims of sexual abuse (Cawson et 

al) 

• 8 out of 10 abusers are known to the child 

• Over 90% of allegations do not result in convictions 

• Less than 10% of child sexual abuse is dealt with by the 

criminal courts. Most is not reported to the authorities. 

• Incidence v prevalence – any differences regarding the 

internet and mobile technologies? 


Gridlock 

Parent/carer 

Abused child 

Abuser 


For Disclosure We Need: 

• A culture that will hear children 

• A legal framework that will: 

- offer protection to the child 

- actively pursue the alleged perpetrator 

through the criminal justice system 

- reflect the differential needs of child 

witnesses 

• A systemic approach that is child focused - ABE 


In The Aftermath of Disclosure the Child 

Needs: 

• To feel believed 

• To be in a safe place 

• To be protected from contact with the perpetrator 

• To be offered therapy 

• To be supported through the process of ‘being a 

witness’ 

• Never underestimate the impact of disclosure on 

the child 


The uniqueness of each child’s experience 

• The degree of internalisation of sexually abusive 

experiences is unique to each child and 

dependent on factors such as 

• The nature of the abuse 

• The circumstances in which it occurred 

• The modus operandi of the abuser 

• The nature of the child’s previous life 

experiences 

• To whom the child disclosed, how many 

attempts? 

• The degree of support within the family 

• The child’s natural “in-built” resilience 


A working model 

• The child’s protective carer needs: 

• Support in coming to terms with their child’s disclosure 

• Education 

o Regarding the MO of offenders 

o Regarding the impact of sexual abuse on the child 

and the possible resultant behaviours 

o Regarding the impact of the MO of the abuser on the 

carer and other family members 

• Personal support due to the possibility of issues from 

their own past being re-stimulated 



• Therapeutic intervention 

• Purpose – help make the child victim make sense of 

what has happened 

• Value of Early Therapeutic Intervention 

• Impacts on the child if the issues are not addressed 

• Trauma of disclosure 

• Impacts on the child of the time-lag between disclosure 

and therapeutic intervention 

• Pre-trial therapy 




• Key treatment focus – interconnection between how the 

child feels, thinks and behaves 

• Treatment programme draws on cognitive and 

behavioural therapy but takes a more holistic approach 



• The therapeutic context will involve addressing: 

• The impact issues 

• The resultant behavioural issues 

• The resultant emotional issues 



• Impact issues 

• Damaged good syndrome 

• Guilt 

• Fear 

• Depression 

• Low self esteem and poor social skills 

• Repressed anger and hostility 

• Inability to trust 

• Blurred role boundaries and role confusion 

• Pseudo-maturity and failure to complete developmental tasks 

• Lack of self mastery and control 

• Cognitive confusion 

• grief 



• Resultant behavioural issues 

• Acting aggressively 

• Breaking the rules/law 

• Compulsive masturbation/sexual acting out 

• Eating disorders 

• Depression 

• Fire setting 

• Running away 

• Attempts at self harm/suicide 

• Withdrawn/isolated 

• Development of chronic physical illness 

• Unfeeling/denying feelings 

• Use of drugs, solvents, alcohol to block feelings 

• Lack of self respect, self confidence and self esteem 

• Flashbacks 

• Intense mood changes 

• Lack of memories of all or parts of life 

• Difficulties in forming appropriate relationships either with adults when a child or as an adult 

• Lack of trust in others 



• The therapeutic process includes work with the 

child on 

• Their perception of safety 

• Expression and ventilation of feelings 

• Empowerment 

• Sex education 

• Education about sexual offending 

• Guilt, trust and ambivalence 

• Assertiveness and communication skills 

• Wishes and fears for the future 



• Activities 

• Painting, role play, drawing, play dough, water play 

• Play people, art therapy, drama, clay work, sand play, 

• Symbolic representation, growing plants, sewing 

• Pattern making, cooking, bibliography, music, quizzes 

• Ball pool, board games, ball games, card games 

• Table tennis, writing, construction toys, puppets, 

• Model making, mask making 



• Process 

• Criteria for referral 

• Documents 

• Pre-planning meeting 

• Planning meeting 

• Assessment meeting 

• Review meetings 

• Final review meeting 



• Safe practice 

• Staffing /recruitment 

• Supervision – internal and external 

• Recording – content, accuracy and promptness 

• Quality control – files checked 


Abuse via the internet and mobile 

technologies 

• Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water! 

• Knowledge 

• Practice skills and experience 

• Identify differences in behaviours and impacts 

• Identify differential practice approaches to better 

assist child victims 


Features of the new technology which 

facilitate the sexual abuse of children 

2003 - 2010 

• Easily accessible 

• Hidden activity 

• Eases communication – both on a national and 

international level 

• It’s quick 

• Acts as a conduit between ATP – Trafficking – Abuse online 

• Joined up thinking 

• 2010 

• Growth, sexualisation of children (Popadopolous review), 

children’s views of online/offline, divide between 

children and adults re: knowledge and workings of New 

technology 


What about the victims and their families? 

• No cohesive, uniform approach to 

• Identification 

• Investigation 

• Assessment 

• Interventions 

• Parent/carer support 


Referrals 

• Children viewing adult pornography 

• Children abused through prostitution and/or 

trafficking – abusers use the Internet and mobile 

phones to control their victims 

• Children made the subjects of abusive images 

• Children groomed online and abused offline 

and/or online 

• Children made the subjects of abusive images, 

groomed online and abused online and or offline 


Referrals 

• Young people displaying sexually harmful 

behaviours online 

• Young people presenting as gay, lesbian or bisexual 

online who are groomed online and 

sexually abused offline 

• Children living in a household where a family 

member has been apprehended for viewing child 

abuse images 


Children groomed online for sexual abuse 

online and/or offline 

• HOW DO GROOMERS GROOM ONLINE? 

• Scenario 1 

• Find out as much as they can about their potential victim 

• Establish the risk and likelihood of child telling 

• Find out about child’s family and social networks 

• If “safe enough” will isolate their victim – may use flattery and 

promises or threats and blackmail – and get control 

• Give false information, including false self images 

• Scenario 2 

• May need to do very little of the above – how does this 

make us feel? 


Finkelhor – ‘A clinical application’ 

Adapted from:- D Finkelhor Child Sexual Abuse: New Theory & Research 1986 

Sex with 

a child 

Thoughts 

MOTIVATION 

‘Wanting to’ 

INTERNAL 

INHIBITORS 

‘Conscience’ 

EXTERNAL 

INHIBITORS 

‘Creating 

Opportunity’ 

OVERCOME 

VICTIM RESISTANCE 

‘Doing it and getting 

away with it’



• CASE EXAMPLES 

• Young person groomed online and sexually 

abused offline 

• Young person groomed online 

• Common denominators – saw the abuser as “so 

normal”, neither would have told anyone, 

shame/anger when approached by police 




• IMPACT 

• Silencing of the children 

• WHY? 

• Children’s behaviour on the net is less 

inhibited - they will say things that they 

wouldn’t in the real world and are fearful of 

those close to them finding out about what 

they have said 

• Children are conscious of peer opinion – they 

wouldn’t want them to know that they have 

been “duped” 


Quotes from children 

• “I would never have told anyone if the police 

hadn’t come knocking at our door. It turned out 

that they had arrested the bloke I was friends with 

online and had traced me through examining his 

computer. First off, I said they’d got the wrong 

person….I was terrified my mum and dad would 

know what I had been talking about….you don’t 

even talk to your friends about what you say 

online….somehow it seems a different 

world….one in which I can act like I’m 22 when 

I’m actually only 14” 


Vulnerability? 

• None of the young women could be perceived as 

vulnerable in their offline world and would not fit 

into the four categories that we might class as 

vulnerable offline - children who experience family 

difficulties/chaotic home environments, children with disabilities, children 

with emotional/behavioural difficulties and children who experience 

“exclusion of access” 

• They were remarkable for their heterogeneity - 

personalities, economic status, family backgrounds etc. 

• What is of note is their homogeneity in respect of 

the impacts of the abuse on their thinking, feeling 

and behaviour post trauma 


What’s different online? 

A young person’s perspective 

• “The internet is a weird version of the real world where you can 

do everything 

• Groomers don’t have to worry about seeming suspicious 

• Children can act like adults 

• I used people online to make me feel good 

• Girls use groomers to make them feel mature – groomers use girls 

for sex – it’s mutual using of one another 

• Girls get involved with men because nothing much seems to be 

happening when you’re 12-14 but you want to be older 

• The most talkative (girls) online are the quietest offline 

• The most normal (man) online is a real weirdo offline 

• We rarely talk about our behaviour online – kind of embarrassing” 


What works for recovery? 

• Contextualise therapeutic interventions within the 

young person’s transitional stage of development 

• Understand the conflicting dynamic for the young 

person of being like an adult online but a 

child/young person offline 

• Give time and space 

• Use narrative about known activities online – 

giving permissions 

• Acknowledge what we know regarding how they 

must be feeling - shame, fear, anger, impotence, 

silence, love, betrayal, guilt……. 


What works for recovery? 

• Safeguarding measures need to change – 



• Interventions 

• Support for parents 

• The way we deliver prevention messages to this particular 

age group of young people 


Children made the subjects of child abuse images 

• History – availability, old images, introduction of the digital 

camera 

• COPINE – monitored the online behaviour of sexual 

abusers within Newsgroups 

• Between 1999 – 2002 average of 4 new children a month 

were appearing in child sex newsgroups; in 2002 – number 

had risen to 12, in 2003 a huge increase in new images 

occurred 

• IWF findings 

• Nature of the images 

• Research by Quayle and Jones 2009 

• This is sexual abuse 


NSPCC sample – April, 2010 

• Method – analysed media reports of court cases 

over the past 20 months 

• 2 million+ images circulated by 100 offenders 

who were consequently convicted 

• 50,000 of the images were category 5 

• 1 in 4 offenders had held positions of trust – 

including teachers, clergymen, medics and police 


Demographics re: sexualised images of 

children on the internet 

• Quayle and Jones 

• Sample – Childbase (hosted by CEOP) – Holding 

over 800,000 unique still images collected since 

1998 

• Images for period April 2005-2009 (240,000) were 

sampled – 10% (24,000) selected for more 

detailed examination 

• Images sorted into three categories – gender, age 

(pubescent, pre-pubescent and very young) and 

ethnic group 


Demographics re: sexualised images of 

children on the internet 

• Gender – female children were 18 times more 

likely than male children to be in the images 

• Ethnicity – white children were 96 times more 

likely than none white to be found in the images 

• Age – male children depicted in the images were 

more likely to be pre-pubescent and very young 

• Caveat re: boys and numbers! 


The impact on child victims when images of 

their abuse are placed on the internet 

• Very little research to date 

• Burgess et al. 1984 – Pornography and sex rings 

• Silbert 1989 – Pornography and Child Protection 

• Svedin and Back, 1996, Pornography and Intra-Extra 

Famial abuse 

• Scott, 2001, Pornography and Ritual Abuse 

• Palmer, 2005 

• Svedin and Back, 2006 

• Solderstrom, 2006 

• Future findings 



• Abusers may show children abusive images of 

children to normalise the activity 

• Children may be made to view their own abuse 

images 

• Children may be encouraged to introduce their 

friends or other children within their family to the 

abuser 



• Children may be encouraged to be proactive in 

the sexually abusive scenario – either with the 

perpetrator or with other children 

• Children may be encouraged to place 

photographs/images of themselves online 


From discovery to disclosure 

implications for practice 

• Discovery - never under-estimate the impact on 

the victim – double impact – why? 

• Identification 

• Disclosure - never under-estimate the impact on 

the victim 




• Witness experience 


Discovery 

• Proof of abuse 

• Proof of activity 

• Proof of distress 

• What are we doing about it? 

• Identification? 


Actively seeking child victims 

• Should we leave well alone? 

• Hidden nature of sexual abuse 

• Lasting impacts 

• Children are not going to tell us 

• We must go out and seek them 


Disclosure by discovery 

• No control of the process of disclosure 

• The “secret” between victim and perpetrator 

becomes the most open secret 

• The victim may not have known the images had 

been taken 


Disclosure/Investigation 

• Initial contact with the family 

• Cold calling 

• Lack of information 

• Support for parents 

• Role of the social worker 

• Role of the school 


Disclosure/Investigation 

• Police and social worker have access to exactly 

what has happened to the child via the abusive 

images 

• This differs significantly from any other form of 

police/social worker interviews of child victim 

• Children limit disclosure – telling people only 

what they think they know 

• The child is often so silenced that he/she cannot 

admit what has happened even when confronted 

with the evidence 


Investigation 

• Is it always necessary to interview the child for 

evidential purposes? 

• In what circumstances might it not be necessary? 

• Number of interviews 

• Third party approach 

• Use of audio/video equipment 

• Others in the household 


New recovery issues 

• Impotence regarding disclosure 

• Shame 

• Responsibility 

• Non-resolution – (coming to terms with it) – how 

could we address this with the victim? 


Support for carers 

Issues – these apply to various sexually abusive 

scenarios of which their child has been the victim 

• Fear 

• Shock and disbelief that this happened to 

their daughter/son 

• Anger towards their daughter/son 


Support for carers - continued 

• How their daughter/son got involved in all this, 

under their very noses, and they picked up 

nothing 

• Guilt – what have I (we) done wrong 

• Acknowledging that their daughter/son is 

interested in sex and a sexual being 

• How to engage in conversation about their 

daughter’s/sons abuse with one another and 

with their child 

• Training on safe use of the internet 

• Information – knowledge empowers 


Expressed concerns by parents 

• Fear of further cases coming to light connected to their 

daughter 

• A volatile mixture of anger and blame toward their 

daughter/son mixed with a feeling of impotence – they 

didn’t know how to keep her/him safe online and didn’t 

know what she/he was doing offline 

• Incredulity – that their daughter/son engaged in such 

behaviour both on and offline when they thought they 

were such a close family network 

• Not sharing their predicament with friends, colleagues 

or other family members – a need to protect their 

daughter/son from others knowing what had happened 

• They didn’t protect their daughter/son – guilt 


A local, regional, national and international issue 

• Implications for preventative strategies 

• Implications for safeguarding and policing 

• Implications for recovery and treatment 

programmes 


Children accessing adult pornography 

• Ease of accessing the material 

• Quantities 

• Impacts on children and their views on 

relationships 

• Beginning of a spiral? 


Children accessing adult pornography cont… 

• Permissions given? 

• Desensitisation by adults living in the home 

• Grooming by adults outside the home via chatrooms 

• Aims of such grooming – desensitisation – feed 

groomer’s fantasises 

• Demonstration of preferred/fantasised sexual 

activity to the child 

• Case study – young married man 


Neuroplasticity 

• Neuron – the nerve cells in our brains and 

nervous systems 

• Plastic – changeable, malleable, modifiable 

• 1960s and ‘70s - Scientists from around the world 

discovered that the brain was not “hardwired” but 

could change its own structure and function 

through thought and activity 


Neuroplasticity 

• The Brain that Changes Itself – Norman Doidge - 

Penguin 

• Sexual and romantic plasticity – Freud – critical 

periods for sexual plasticity – 

• Critical periods are brief windows of time when 

new brain systems and maps develop with the 

help of stimulation from the people in one’s 

environment 

• Puberty being one of them 


Neuroplasticity – implications for young 

people 

• The growth of pornography has been such that it 

accounts for 

• 25% of video rentals and 

• Is the fourth most common reason people give 

for going online 


Young people’s risky and/or harmful 

behaviours online 

• Concerning behaviour or just experimenting? 

• Placing themselves and others at risk – problems 

with labelling their behaviour, lack of understanding of 

developmental issues – brain development, emotional 

development, what do love and control look like, feel like and 

sound like? (Sharon Cooper). Needs supersede rules for young 

people 

• Harmful behaviours 

• Downloading abusive images of children* 

• Placing images of people online 

• Sexual solicitation 

• Sexting 

• Bullying 


Children who download sexually abusive 

images of children 

• Numbers 

• Barnardo’s study. 

• Wilson and Andrews (2004) and Carr (2004) – 

• Looking at sexually abusive practices of Adults and YP 

involving abusive images – largest single group of 

offenders = 15 – 19 year olds. 

• Case study 




• Assessment and intervention programmes – 

protection versus conviction 

• Current practice with young people who sexually 

harm - some detail 

• What needs to be different? 

• What about timing regarding disposal of the 

matter? 

• What questions do we need to ask? 


ISSUES REGARDING YOUNG PEOPLE DISPLAYING SEXUALLY 

HARMFUL BEHAVIOURS 

• The need for greater consistency in the application of the 

law – both civil and criminal 

• The need to dovetail systems of child welfare and youth 

crime more effectively 

• Concern about children and young people who have 

sexually abused being caught up, inappropriately, in the 

provisions of the current legislation on sexual offending 

• Variability about the way in which young people with 

sexually abusive behaviours are managed locally 

• The lack of available assessment and treatment services for 

young people 

• A lack of appropriate alternative care for children and 

young people who have been identified as having sexually 

abused others 


Intervention with children and young people needs to be… 

• Holistic: focusing on the children’s needs across 

all dimensions of their lives and development 

• Systemic: involving family, parents and/or carers 

in order to improve children’s social 

environments and attachment relationships 

• Goal specific: designed to address specific 

issues relating to the child’s sexually harmful 

behaviour 




• Questions to ask 

• How was the behaviour discovered/disclosed? 

• In what context did it occur? 

• What motivated the child to look at abusive images? 

• Was this a planned and calculated activity? 

• How long has this activity been going on? 

• Was this a sole activity or were others involved? 

• What did the carers know about this activity? What is their 

reaction to their child’s behaviour? 

• Are there child protection issues for the YP and children in the 

family? 

• What is the nature of the abusive images? 

• Criminal justice, child protection, or both? 


Child and youth centred approach to young 

people who post self-taken indecent images 

• ACPO lead on Child Protection and Abuse 

Investigations – position statement 

• Whilst acknowledging that the behaviour is 

criminal (Section 1 of the Protection of Children 

Act 1978 as amended by section 45 of the Sexual 

Offences Act 2003), the guidance suggests that 

such cases should be dealt with within the wider 

safeguarding framework 


Child centred approach continued 

• ACPO doesn’t support the prosecution or 

criminalisation of children for taking indecent 

images of themselves and sharing them 

• ACPO believes that a safeguarding approach 

should be at the heart of any intervention 

• ? Setting a precedent for an approach to dealing 

with young people with sexually harmful 

behaviours per se 


Children of adults who download or 

distribute abusive images of children 

• Operation Ore 

• Connection between viewing/downloading, 

distribution/trading and producing images 

• What risk does the adult pose to the children in 

the home? 

• Impacts on family dynamics 

• No research 

• Practice guidance needed 




• The relationship between viewing and the commission of further 

sexual offences against children 

• The need to understand this is driven, not only by law 

enforcement but also by child protection agencies 

• The questions we need to ask 

• Does the carer accessing abusive images put the 

child/children within the immediate household at risk? 

• Should the carer or child be removed from the family home? 

• Is the risk so low that to do so would further traumatise the 

very children we are trying to protect? 

• Does the fact that the offending carer is also part of a 

distribution network increase the risk to children in his 

immediate surroundings? 

• We have to make these decisions based on a paucity of empirical 

evidence 




• The relationship between viewing and the commission of 

further sexual offences against children 

• Much of what we know relates to police operations, case 

studies and unpublished anecdotal material 

• Difficulties regarding research to date 

o Different kinds of populations – prison versus 

community 

o Time frame for the data 

o Ways in which data are collected (tele, self report, 

reconviction rates) 

o Lack of longitudinal studies 

o New technologies move on e.g. emergence of the 

mobile internet 




• Reference: Contact sexual offending by men with online 

sexual offences – Seto, Hanson and Babchishin – Sexual 

Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment. 2010 ATSA 

• Carried out two meta-analyses – 1. examined the contact 

sexual offence histories of online offenders and 2. 

examined the recidivism rates from follow up studies of 

online offenders 

• The results of these two quantitative reviews suggest that 

there may be a distinct subgroup of online-only offenders 

who pose relatively low risk of committing contact sexual 

offences in the future 

• Implications – next slide! 




• Implications of Seto et al. findings 

• A sexual interest in children does not 

necessarily result in contact sexual offences 

against children 

• Those who do act on their sexual interest in 

children are likely to have personality traits 

and life circumstances that facilitate antisocial 

behaviour and criminality 

• However, this is a serious crime…. 

• But it would be a mistake to fail to 

differentiate online offenders by the risk they 

pose 




• Research on online offenders is limited. The 

researchers suggest that the risk factors for 

online offenders are likely to be the same risk 

factors for offline offenders (sexual deviancy, 

antisocial orientation and intimacy deficits). They 

suggest that the valid measures of these risk 

factors should be used by police, courts, 

correctional systems and clinicians to prioritise 

interventions for individuals involved in online 

sexual offences 

• Case study – grand father 


A mother’s perspective 

• “What parents have to realise is that the internet is the focus of 

our children’s lives. What they are doing online is the same thing 

that everyone is doing: they’re seeking love, attention, they’re 

bored. Anything that they can’t do in real life they can do online, 

and engaging in a virtual world is now part of their growing up. If 

they have a bad day they can go online and be somebody else. 

If you are 12 and have braces you can go online and be 23 and 

a femme fatale. It’s a game, it’s fun, whatever’s offered to them 

they grab without thinking. Some parents find it hard to 

understand their children’s growing awareness of their sexuality 

but our kids are sexually aware, they see sexualised adds every 

day, they talk about sex on the internet. All we can do is make 

our children aware that the dangers out there are very real and 

that this can happen to them” 


tinkpalmer@mariecollinsfoundation.org.uk 

Mobile; 07825 501180 

Tink Palmer 

CEO 


Thank you for listening

Marie Collins Foundation - Stop It Now

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?