Screaming Into the Void: Why Child Online Safety Isn't Trending
And Why It Should Be
I've been staring at a blank screen for a while now, trying to figure out how to articulate the frustration that's been building up for years. It's the kind of frustration that comes from pouring your heart and soul into something, only to feel like you're shouting into a void.
Do you know what gets the algorithms buzzing? Politics. Controversy. Memes. Elon Musk or Final Trump tweeting about… well, anything. But child online safety? Crickets and tumbleweeds.
I've spent years trying to get this message out there. Years of research, years of working on the frontlines, years of seeing the devastating impact that online sexual predators have on children, their families and even analysts like me who had to analyse the imagery that was produced and distributed of them. And yet, it feels like I have barely made a dent.
I've watched as other topics, often fueled by outrage or entertainment, explode across social media. I've seen how a single mention of a polarising figure can trigger a viral cascade. And I can't help but ask: why isn't protecting our children as compelling?
It's not that people don't care. I know they do. But the internet is a noisy place, and it's hard to be heard above the din. I've sacrificed my mental health in my previous career to protect children, and I'm now trying to use education as a tool, but it feels like I'm hitting a wall. I know the subject is one that people find difficult to hear, when people talk to her about my C-PTSD they cringe at the mere mention of the words “child porn”, they don't want to face the realities behind those words in the real world and that just makes what I'm trying to do, ten times harder.
I understand the allure of the sensational. I get why a political rant or a hilarious meme can capture our attention. But what about the quiet, insidious dangers that lurk in the digital shadows? What about the children who are being groomed, exploited, and traumatised online? Don't they deserve that information designed to protect them, gets as much media attention and reach as the stories that are written about what happens to the children who have fallen victim to the predators?
What does it take? Seriously, what does it take to make child online safety a priority? To make it a topic that people are talking about, sharing, and acting on?
I don't have all the answers. But I know that we can't afford to stay silent. We can't afford to let this issue fade into the background.
I'm not giving up. I refuse to believe that this is a lost cause. I refuse to allow the damage to my mental health and the damage done to those who support me to have been in vain, but I'm also tired of feeling like I'm fighting this battle alone.
As some of you know, I have my MP writing to the Secretary of State for Education on my campaign to get child online safety added to the national curriculum (see below), but if you know anyone who has the power to get my message out there, please get in touch with me!
If you're reading this, and if you care about protecting children online, please share this message. Please talk about it. Please help me amplify this voice. Because our children deserve better."
The issue seems to be that people throw a circuit breaker when a problem is perceived to be too large to do anything about. My wife and I have been educating people about human trafficking for 9 years and we have learned that as soon as they hear the word human trafficking, their brain switches off. The people that we've been able to interview and get to understand this phenomenon have explained that they don't know enough about it, it is so large that they feel they can make no difference, and they are scared of thinking about it because it questions their entire understanding of the universe. Or at least it feels that way.
So we now focus on "abuse prevention." It has a similar reaction to human trafficking, but not as pronounced.
We also learned that people don't want to get involved in a topic unless they have an emotional connection to someone that has had that happen to them. This is what is so phenomenal about the VR app that we made. There is a young girl in the app who talks to you for 20 minutes, and you can use her as an emotional guide post or "someone you know" and it helps you see it from their point of view. Safely.
Once people have an emotional connection to the topic, they're willing to learn more about it and make changes to their own behavior.
Abuse of any sort is an incredibly difficult topic and I'm really proud that you're out there making a difference! Don't give up!
You have done more than me in this area but don't give up. I've been shouting into this void since the 2000s telling parents and teachers what was coming. I even did a few workshops on it but it seem to fall on deaf ears. Keep fighting the good fight.