Charities launch child digital safety campaign

A conference was held as the start of the online safety campaign

A campaign is taking place in Jersey to improve online safety for children to prevent them being coerced into making and sharing sexual images.

The drive was launched at a conference held by NSPCC Jersey and the Safeguarding Partnership Board on 7 November to discuss the island's policy on the online safeguarding of children.

Roxy Longworth, 22, spoke at the event calling for greater conversation on the topic and shared her experience of being coerced into taking nude images when she was aged 13.

Ms Longworth said parents were not sufficiently educated about the dangers of the internet, including for children who are primary school age.

She said: "What this conference is showing is how much younger it's getting when people first experience some of these things online.

"Young people aged under 11 are experiencing these things and you can start the conversations very young and in a way that's about how you feel about yourself, and how that makes you vulnerable online.

"Those conversations can be quite subtle, rather than explicit and that has to happen super early," she added.

Roxy Longworth spoke of her experience at the online safety conference

Ms Longworth said her experience was made worse by thinking she could not talk to her parents about what had happened.

She stressed the importance of young people feeling able to talk about online safety with trusted adults.

She said: "The things that my parents understood like drugs and alcohol, they spoke to me about openly.

"They always said I could go to them If something bad happened in terms of those things.

"We didn't have that conversation around online stuff."

Ms Longworth added: "I felt so ashamed, I didn't speak to anyone. It meant that everything got so much worse."

'Open and honest conversations'

Ms Longworth said having "open and honest conversations" with young people was important to create a "safe space to go and ask questions" about the topic of naked photographs.

A 2023 Internet Matters survey found that 17% of 15 to 17-year-olds have shared nude or sexual photos online, as well as 7% of 14-year-olds and 4% of 13-year-olds.

NSPCC local campaigns manager Emma Motherwell said: "We are pleased to be working alongside our partners in Jersey to bring forward this campaign which we hope will help professionals, parents and carers to protect children and keep them safe."