Child Exploitation and Online Protection
Under 18 and worried about online sexual abuse?
Are you worried about online sexual abuse or the way someone has been communicating with you online.
CEOP is a law enforcement agency and is here to help keep children and young people safe from sexual abuse and grooming online. We help thousands of children and young people every year who have been in a similar situation.
We can help and give you advice, and you can make a report directly to us if something has happened online which has made you feel unsafe, scared or worried. This might be from someone you know in real life, or someone you have only ever met online. We take all reports seriously and we will do everything we can to keep you safe.
Whether or not you wish to speak to someone about what has happened, you can still follow the below advice to stay safe:-
It is important that you stop all contact with the person you are worried about and block them so they can’t send you any further messages.
Report the account to the social media platform that you have spoken to them on. This allows the platform to review the account and it may help in getting the account removed.
If you are worried about a nude or sexual image of you that has been shared or someone is threatening to share online, Childline can help you report it via the Report Remove tool. Visit https://www.childline.org.uk/remove to make a confidential report to the IWF.
We recommend that you also talk to an adult you can trust about what has happened to you. This may be a parent, another adult family member or a professional who works with you, like a teacher or youth worker.
If you don’t have an adult that you feel safe and able to talk to, you can talk to a trained counsellor from Childline, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, online via the live chat function, via email at https://www.childline.org.uk/get-support on the phone at 0800 1111. Childline are able to provide you with some support and talk to you about how you are feeling.
