Some risks involve harmful online interactions with other users. Two issues of particular concern are online bullying, and grooming:
Online bullying
Online bullying (aka cyberbullying) means any form of bullying which takes place online or through smartphones and tablets, including through social networking sites, messaging apps, gaming sites and chat rooms. It may include:
- Continually sending e-mails or messages to someone who does not want any contact with the sender
- Rude remarks, including ‘gossip’
- Abusive comments and threats
- Sharing pictures, videos or personal information to cause harm, embarrassment or humiliation
- Hacking into someone’s email or social media account and sending malicious messages/making offensive comments while posing as that person
- Creating websites that make fun of someone, or spread malicious rumours.
Young people with mobile phones need to be careful who they give their phone number to. Advise them that if they receive threatening or abusive phone calls, texts or emails to store the message (do not delete it) and tell you, or someone else that they trust. It is a criminal offense to send offensive or threatening messages and if it continues it can also amount to harassment. The police can take action but will need the messages as evidence.
Young people should also be aware that ‘liking’ or ‘sharing’ bullying comments on social networking sites is considered to be bullying.
Grooming
Some adults who want to engage children in sexual activity, or talk to them for sexual gratification, will seek out young people online, sometimes posing as another young person. Young people will often accept friend requests when they appear to come from other young people, even if not known to them.
When a young person accepts a friend request from an unknown person, that person becomes a ‘friend of a friend’ to the young person’s network of friends. This increases the likelihood that those young people will also accept a friend request from them. A young person is therefore also protecting their friends when they are careful about who they accept on their ‘friend’ list.
Grooming methods include:
- Building the child’s trust by offering friendship
- Initiating more intimate conversation with images and webcam
- Using blackmail to force a child to provide more extreme images or meet up in real life
Children in foster care can be particularly vulnerable to grooming if they have a low self-esteem, need for attention and affection, and have not formed a strong attachment to a carer who they can turn to for support. These young people might be more likely to turn to chat rooms that offer immediate gratification and the comfort of anonymity.
Young people can protect themselves from grooming by:
- Protecting their online profiles so that only friends can see what they post
- Only accepting friend requests from people they know in the real world
- Keeping their personal contact details private