Reporting A Problem Online
If you’ve seen something upsetting online, or something makes you feel scared or worried, that’s normal. There are places you can go and people you can speak to for help.
Talk about it
Speak to an adult you can confide in about what you’ve seen. It could be a family member, teacher or youth worker, for example. They might be able to help clear things up and sort out your concerns.
If you stumbled across something online by accident, that adult may have some tips for how to avoid seeing that upsetting thing in the future. They can also help you find the report button on a site.
If you don’t have anyone you can speak to at home or school, there are services you can call, email or chat to online here.
These services are there to listen and help you with what to do next. They won’t try to stop you from going online, and you won’t be in trouble if you found the worrying content on a site you’re not old enough to go on.
Getting Help
ChildLine:
A free confidential 24/7 helpline for children and young people. You can call 0800 1111 or chat online at www.childline.org.uk ChildLine is run by the NSPCC.
The Mix:
A free confidential helpline for young people under 25, open 11am-11pm every day. Tel 0808 808 4994 or chat online at www.themix.org.uk
Report It
If you’ve seen something online that makes you feel uncomfortable or that upsets you, it’s important to report it where you can.
Reporting content won’t mean you can’t access the site in future, but it will alert the platform that this content is something to take a bigger look at. It will also help you stop seeing content like it again.
Try to talk to an adult you can trust what you’ve seen so that they can help you to report it.
Below you can read how to report an issue on different social media sites.
If you see something on a website that you’re really worried about, there are a few places you can report this to if you want to take matters further.
Below you can find websites to help you report Criminal Content;
Grooming or other illegal behaviour:
If you want to report someone who is behaving suspiciously online towards a child, you should in an emergency contact the emergency services by calling 999, or otherwise make a report to CEOP, the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre, see www.ceop.gov.uk. We have placed a CEOP button at the bottom of our website to help you report things easily.
Child sexual abuse images:
If you stumble across criminal content online, you should report this to the Internet Watch Foundation at www.iwf.org.uk/report. Criminal content in the UK includes child sexual abuse images, criminally obscene adult content as well as non-photographic child sexual abuse images.
Online terrorism:
You can report terrorism-related content to the police’s Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit at www.gov.uk/report-terrorism.
Hate speech:
Online content which incites hatred on the grounds of race, religion, disability, sexual orientation or gender should be reported to True Vision at www.report-it.org.uk.