Projects

Dark web resource

As part of our commitment to respond to the ever-developing world of technology Marie Collins Foundation has been working with CEOP and the Children’s Society to produce a resource about the Darkweb.

This is an area that many people have limited knowledge of, and our hope is that this resource will help children, parents and professionals understand a little better this part of the internet and why people may want to go on it.

Find out more

IVIIOC downloader

IVIIOC stands for the Indirect Victim of Indecent Image of Children. 

It relates to the impact on the child and non-abusing parent of a partner who has accessed or downloaded indecent images of children. We are part of a collaboration of specialist charities, professionals, and people with lived experience to identify how best to recognise and support the non-abusing parent and their children.

IIOC Restorative Justice

The Indecent Images of Children (IIOC) Restorative Justice work was explored in a research paper by Professor Suzanne Ost and Professor Alisdair Gillespie.

For a number of victims and survivors, they may be unaware that a sexual or personal recording has been made of them. This may be because the recordings or images being shared were created covertly, or without the person’s knowledge.

We have seen first-hand the harm that can be caused when people find out for the first time that there are intimate images of them. MCF continues to support the work of Suzanne and Alisdair in looking at the need for professionals to consider if the person knows about the images before taking any action, and to have a framework to apply to their decision making.
 

HSB Helpline

A 2021 Ofsted report revealed incidents of child-on-child harmful sexual behaviour are so widespread, that children see ‘no point in reporting them’. 

In light of these findings, Marie Collins Foundation and southwest grid for learning have recently created the Harmful Sexual Behaviour Support Service, which is available to any professional who works with children and young people who needs advice, guidance, or resource to support tackling harmful sexual behaviour incidents.

Harmful sexual behaviour is 'sexual behaviours expressed by children and young people under the age of 18 years old that are developmentally inappropriate, may be harmful towards self or others, or abusive towards another child, young person or adult' (Hackett, 2014). Funded by the Home Office, this service is for anyone in England who works with children and young people. In particular, it is designed for designated safeguarding leads within primary and secondary schools and alternative provision. It can also support with changing the culture that Ofsted highlighted in their report around sexual abuse in schools. 

The support service is available for anyone in England working with children and young people, particularly, designated safeguarding leads within primary and secondary schools and alternative provision. Support is also available to early years provision, colleges, and wider safeguarding professionals (including police, social workers, and health care professionals). The service is run by trained professionals and provides the tools to equip and empower professionals through advice on cases, guidance on policy development and sharing resources, best practice, and useful contacts.

Keeping Children Safe in North Yorkshire

We are working alongside the North Yorkshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner’s Office (OPFCC) to highlighting the harms of Technology-Assisted Child Sexual Abuse. 

This collaboration's aim is holistic, and involves sharing information with children, parents and professionals. 

The North Yorkshire police cadets have helped produce an awareness resource for children and young people in North Yorkshire.

Guidance for parents were also developed. The first resource provides advice on how to discuss any concerns they may have about Technology-Assisted Child Sexual Abuse with their child. The second is focused on the parents' response when finding out their child has been sexually harmed through technology. 

Training continues with police and practitioners in North Yorkshire on best practice when responding to a child who has been affected by Technology-Assisted Child Sexual Abuse. 

I-minds Project

The i-Minds team is developing an app that aims to offer vital tried and tested support to these young people for the first time.

The number of young people experiencing online sexual abuse is on the rise. The i-Minds team is developing an app that aims to offer vital tried and tested support to these young people for the first time.

A safe and accessible intervention to support young people who have experienced online sexual abuse is urgently needed.

The iMinds team are working with young people across England and in Edinburgh with lived experience of online sexual abuse to develop and test an app.

The i-Minds app aims to reduce the risk of further harm and re-victimisation for young people who have experienced online sexual abuse. The app aims to build confidence, resilience, and distress management skills through a technique called mentalisation.

Dragon Shield

Online groomers use language to form a relationship with the children they prey on, to gain and then betray children’s trust.

Exploiting children’s wonderful sociability, kind-heartedness, and curiosity. Project DRAGON-S is working to keep children safe from this form of technology-assisted child abuse.

Find out more

Speaking Truth to Power

MCF is recognised globally as a leading organisation in supporting victims and survivors of technology-assisted child sexual abuse. 

With thanks to the generous support of the Oak Foundation, we have recently completed a key piece of research to better understand effective practices in engaging victims and survivors, and young people more broadly in support and recovery services across 5 countries. We will use the findings of this research to develop a 'framework of best practice' in supporting victims and survivors to recover, which will share expertise and support developing service excellence. We also seek to develop a co-ordinated voice amongst services that can collectively combine efforts, and ultimately speak truth to power. 

To read the summary report, click here

To watch the seminar click here

Linh and Danh's Online Adventure

Linh and Danh’s online adventure are a suite of educational resources which comprise lesson pack for teachers and story book with accompanying song for students. 

Its aim is to teach 6-8 year-olds about online safety awareness and the importance of keeping themselves and their friends safe both online and off. Developed with partners in Vietnam, the story follows the adventures of two children, Linh and Danh, who are playing an online game where they interact and play with different people using animal avatars. 

The online adventure story book covers themes such as: 

• What personal information is, and the importance of not sharing this with people who you do not know and trust in real-life;
• Potential harm if things seen online are copied in a real-life environment
• Being kind and respectfully online 
• How to identify adults you trust and know that you can go to them and ask for help. 

The themes and messages in the story book are reinforced by ‘Techie Tink’, our superhero who helps Linh and Danh understand and reinforce the risks they face. Whilst the story and accompanying resources have been designed with the 6-8 age group in mind, teachers may choose to show and use them with children of different groups if it is deemed appropriate and depending on the child’s ability, understanding, online experience and use of technology. The storybook titled, ‘Linh and Danh’s online adventure’ is the core feature of this resource. Whilst the book can be read as a standalone educational tool, for maximum impact, it is recommended that the story is accompanied by the lesson plans as the discussions and activities to provide context and reinforce the key online safety messages.

Click: Path to Protection (International) Train the Trainer

No place to hide campaign

The Marie Collins Foundation is one of a number of prominent child safeguarding charities who are concerned about the implementation of End-to-End Encryption (E2EE) on social media platforms and the effect this will have on children’s safety.

There is a delicate balance to be struck between protecting user’s privacy and protecting children from those who use technology to groom and sexually abuse children and share Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) online. However, it is essential that the balance is found because the introduction of E2EE, without adequate safeguards, will significantly impact on our ability to protect children by giving child sex abusers the opportunity to conceal their activities and the abuse of children. 

We are a member of the steering group for the No Place To Hide campaign, which aims to increase public awareness about this issue and engage with tech companies find a solution that keeps children safe online without compromising user privacy.

Why does this matter? Most social media companies currently monitor child sex abuse on their platforms and report this to police. But E2EE scrambles the data, meaning platforms will no longer be able to detect this abuse. Facebook currently make 94% of all reports of suspected child sex abuse online, so if they go ahead with their plans which will prevent them from doing this, the impact will be huge. If E2EE is rolled out without safeguards, it is estimated that over 14 million reports of suspected child sex abuse will go undetected.

How will this affect children? Law enforcement bodies around the world have been clear that E2EE makes it harder for them to stop child sexual abuse online. In the UK, 650 children are protected every month, thanks to these referrals. If E2EE is introduced as planned, it will result in less children being safeguarded, less child sex abusers being caught, and less CSAM (images and videos of child sexual abuse) being identified and removed from platforms, which causes ongoing harm and trauma for those victims.

Do some platforms already use E2EE? Some apps (for example WhatsApp) already have E2EE, but usually you need to already know someone and have their phone number to make contact with them. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are different as abusers use these to browse for children they don't already know, before then moving the conversations to a more private platform where they can continue to groom and abuse the children without fear of being caught. 

Do you support privacy? We fully support strong user privacy and encryption. But we also support children's right to be protected from child sex abusers, and strongly believe that the children depicted in CSAM shared online also have a right to privacy – to have those images identified and removed from the internet. We want to work with social media companies to find a solution that keeps children safe online without compromising user privacy.

Is there a solution that protects privacy and children's safety? Yes. The UK Safety Tech Challenge Fund is funding projects to develop innovative solutions to keep children safe in end-to-end encrypted environments, whilst upholding user privacy. Tech experts like Professor Hany Farid are also clear that if the motivation is there, solutions will be found.

Watch our Youtube video here. 

International work

The Marie Collins Foundation works in collaboration with a number of countries to ensure children sexually harmed through technology receive the response and support that does the least harm. 

This work has ranged from upskilling professionals in responding to TACSA to developing bespoke strategic and operational in country initiatives.

Currently MCF have worked with representative in, Vietnam, Namibia, Ukraine, Canada, South Africa, Columbia, Northern Ireland, Zimbabwe, Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Italy, Greece, Lithuania, Kenya, Cameroon, Belgium, Turks and Caicos.

Dragon -S+

A critical weakness at the interface of research and technology designed to counter online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSAE) is the limited understanding of offender child interaction (including that resulting in perceived-first-person [PFP] Child Sexual Abuse Material [CSAM]).

 Research into online CSAE, chiefly online grooming (OG), has focused upon offenders, deriving behavioural models that inform detection/prevention interventions. Meantime, child-focused research has prioritised remediation strategies aligned to platform affordances. Because these lines of work have developed in parallel, they neglect the fundamental of OG entailing two-way engagement: offenders adapt tactics in response to children’s interactional choices, and vice-versa, and interaction styles shift within and across exchanges and/or over time. Understanding offender  child interaction is a potential game changer in efforts to move upstream to prevent harm from happening. It can lead to research evidenced insights to anchor the design and implementation of actionable OG preventative technology at scale.

Comprehensive European Strategy Against tech-facilitated Grooming And Missing

CESAGRAM will work towards a Comprehensive European Strategy against Grooming and Missing children by conducting a range of separate yet interconnected activities: Research, Training and Awareness Raising, the creation of an AI Tool, and Advocacy. The project will be delivered through a partnership consisting of 11 expert organisations and is funded by the European Commission. 

This project aims to enhance the understanding of the process of grooming, and more particularly how it is facilitated by technology and how it can lead to child sexual abuse and missing, in order to, based on this better understanding:

• Ensure that grooming for sexual abuse and potentially leading to going missing is prevented insofar possible.
• Ensure that victims of grooming are identified and receive appropriate support before, during and after a disappearance.

Marie Collins Foundation will be working with three European countries; Greece, Italy, and Lithuania, to assist in the development of police and practitioners understanding and their response to Technology-Assisted Child Sexual Abuse (TACSA) and how this can be a factor in regard to children who have been reported missing.  

 To find out more about this project please click on the link below: 

CESAGRAM – Identification and support for tech-facilitated grooming and missing among young people (cesagramproject.eu)