The hidden costs of COVID-19 lockdowns for children will be discussed for decades. It will not need an expert panel to realise that, for many, the isolation in itself was an adverse childhood experience. We think of their lost education, and the immeasurable protective factors that physically attending school offers. For some children, school is their ‘safe space’, providing room to thrive and be free from the troubles at home. Abruptly closing this door forced our children into isolation. This was unlike school holidays, where measures to safeguard the vulnerable are in place. This was a wholesale step back. I have a strong idea of some of the horrors they will have endured but we will have to wait for the inquiries and reports to have it laid out in full.
Education had to turn to IT to maintain contact and deliver learning to all age groups, so it is unsurprising that Ofcom reports (2021) that nearly all children aged 5 to 15 went online in 2020, with just over half posting or sharing their own content. When used well, the world wide web can be a safe place for teaching and for children to maintain some socialisation by keeping in touch with their peers. On the flip side, it can be an obscure, shadowy portal where all types of predators loom, to groom and exploit children.
In safeguarding we work in partnership with social services, police, education and others to risk assess and plan for those who have come to our attention. Child sexual exploitation is rising at an exponential rate. A short search found a plethora of uncomfortable reading from Ofcom, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the Home Office, National Crime Agency (NCA) and Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP).
IWF (2018; 2021) has reported a substantial increase in self-generated imagery (SGI). This is when someone takes photos or videos of themselves to send, perhaps performing a sexual act. Children call SGI ‘nudes’ and they don't have to go looking for them, they are being AirDropped on to their smartphones. An AirDrop doesn't need cellular data or Wi-Fi, it uses Bluetooth, and it transfers files quickly. The person who receives the file can decline, but natural curiosity will lead to most accepting it. In addition to this, 94% of children use at least one social media platform a day.
The content is full-frontal nudity, photos and videos of genitalia, children performing sexual acts on themselves and others. The photo may have been sent to another child—it is likely they will have been coerced into doing this, and then bribery is used to obtain further, often more explicit, content. But this is only a small part of the problem. Social media offers a doorway to anyone and anywhere—30% of girls aged 12–15 disclosed that they have been contacted by a stranger; 30% of 8–15-year-old girls have disclosed this has happened to them, with 20% reporting that they had been shown sexual content. I have heard first-hand accounts of children being befriended by strange boys via Instagram and Snapchat. They connect with this individual and in a short time they are sharing explicit images. When police investigate the account is closed or is based outside of the UK.
It is not my intention to purposefully shock readers, but the latest report from the IWF (2021) discusses analysis of SGI. It is confident that there is, on average, eight cases a day of sexual abuse involving siblings. Sixty-five per cent show direct sexual contact with each other, with the age range being from 4-year-olds to teenagers. This cannot be ignored—online and offline abuse is the same for a child, leading to low self-esteem, self-blame, and leading to desensitisation and risk-taking behaviours. The law has been tightened to support victims of child sex exploitation and social media companies are being asked, repeatedly, to use their algorithms and tech savvy to halt this horrific progression of criminality.
What can we do as nurses, doctors, social workers, teachers and parents? Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child has one answer: educate children on their right to safety and to be free from abuse. If they can understand that SGI ‘nudes’ sharing is abuse, this may stop them from engaging and being exploited. If it doesn't, then it may allow them to disclose to someone they trust, who can support them.