Think about the ways your child currently communicates you about difficult topics. They may not recognise it as something serious enough to report or may be worried about getting in trouble or getting blamed. Some children already face difficulties with language and communication, and may not yet know when and how to ask for help.
It may be particularly difficult for young people to ask for help if this will reveal something about their online activities that they do not want to share, for example sexual preference or sexuality.
We asked 13-17 year olds why young people might not want to report online sexual harassment. The top 5 results were:
- #1 Too embarrassed (56%)
- #2 My parents/carers would stop me using the internet (49%)
- #3 Worried that they are to blame (48%)
- #4 Worried about what would happen next (47%)
- #5 Worried about being targeted by those involved (44%)
9-12 year olds told us:
“My Mum, she would be like ‘oh, when I was your age I don’t know about all these stuff, how come you know about them now.” Girl 11-12 years
“If she tells the head teacher, the head teacher might make a whole school assembly about her. It’s going to be even more embarrassing because people are just gonna keep calling her snitch and stuff.” Boy, 11-12 years