Understanding online sexual harassment amongst children and young people

On January 23rd Marie Collins Foundation hosted a highly informative online webinar with guest speaker Phoebe Roberts from Childnet who shared insight on the issue of online sexual harassment faced by children and young people today.

We know that an Ofsted review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges (2021) found that sexual abuse and harassment in schools is “commonplace” and their recommendation that schools should “act as though sexual harassment and online sexual abuse are happening, even when there are no specific reports.”

During the webinar Phoebe highlighted the different forms online sexual harassment can take and shared with the attendees some of the experiences children and young people have been exposed to.

The webinar provided the opportunity to hear what young people are telling us about online sexual harassment and appropriate ays to have conversations about this issue in order to tackle the harm it causes. Childnet has produced a short film and advice leaflets for parents & carers to support these conversations which were shared with attendees. They can be found here.