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The internet can be a dangerous place, especially for children. It is alarming the amount of child sexual abuse content that is circulating the internet. So how can parents protect their children online? My guest today, Susie Hargreaves, is sharing how the internet increases the rate at which this content can be shared and how parents and carers can keep their children safe.

Susie Hargreaves OBE joined the Internet Watch Foundation in September 2011 as Chief Executive. She has worked in the charity sector for more than 30 years in a range of senior positions. Susie was made an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2016 for Services to Child Online Safety.

Inside the episode, we discuss what the Internet Watch Foundation is and does, the incidence of child sexual abuse online, how predators are able to target and groom children, findings in the Internet Watch Foundation’s recent annual report, and what you can do to help protect your children and prepare them for the dangers on the internet.

In this episode we discuss:

• What the Internet Watch Foundation does
• What tech enabled or self generated child sexual abuse material is
• Statistics of how often this is happening and where it is happening
• The role the internet plays in the distribution of this content
• How predators are able to target and groom children online
• The most common websites and apps that tend to target children in this way
• What policies are currently in place and what policies Susie thinks should be in place to help protect children
• How the analysts at the Internet Watch Foundation cope with viewing this material everyday
• What parents and carers can do to prepare their children for the dangers on the internet

Resources:

• Utah bans under-18s from using social media unless parents consent
• Internet Watch Foundation 2022 Annual Report
• IWF TALK Checklist
• IWF 2022 CSAM Annual Report

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Questions:

1. What does the Internet Watch Foundation do?
2. What is tech enabled or self generated child sexual abuse material?
3. What are the statistics of how often this is happening and where it is happening?
4. Do you think that with the improvement of technology, that this content could have been out there prior and it might not be increasing as much as we think?
5. How do predators target and groom children online?
6. What are the most common websites or apps that children might be using that tend to target children in this way?
7. Are there any stark differences between areas of the world or country where this originates from?
8. What policies do we currently have in place or what do you think should be in place to help protect children?
9.  Does the EU have any legislation putting limitations from the tech industry standpoint on what age they can start using certain apps or technology?
10. What do you think about regulations and controls for requiring anyone under 18 to have parental permissions to use certain platforms?
11. What do analysts do at the Internet Watch Foundation to cope with viewing this abusive material everyday?
12. Do you think that the manual work of the analysts finding and removing content could be replaced by AI?
13. What can parents and carers do to help prepare their children for dangers on the internet?
14. What device or apps would you suggest for parents?