Out-of-home care support workers

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying of children is when someone uses online content or communication to seriously humiliate, seriously harass, seriously intimidate, or seriously threaten a child or young person under the age of 18.

Children and young people in care can be at risk of cyberbullying because others see them as ‘different’. The cyberbullying can include many types of behaviour, such as posting hurtful or humiliating content or comments about them, spreading nasty online gossip, or excluding them online. Changing schools and living arrangements a lot makes it hard to build the connections and friendships that can help children avoid or deal with cyberbullying. 

The first thing to do is help the child report the cyberbullying directly to the online service or platform where it’s happening – you can find links to most in The eSafety Guide. If you don't hear back, you can make a cyberbullying report to eSafety to have the content removed.

Image-based abuse

Image-based abuse is when someone shares, or threatens to share, an intimate photo or video online of you without your consent.

This can include photos, screenshots and photoshopped or fake content. Anyone can be abused this way, but young women are often targeted. They may have shared nudes or sexualised shots with someone willingly at first, or they may have been pressured into sending them. Young people may be less likely to refuse the request if the attention makes them feel good, especially if they have a limited understanding of healthy relationships. 

If the person threatening to share the content says they will only stop if money or more intimate shots are sent to them, this is a type of image-based abuse called ‘sexual extortion’.

If someone has shared or threatened to share an intimate image or video of a young person in your care, make it clear to the young person that it’s not their fault. Let them know they deserve to have healthy relationships that are based on trust and respect. Have the online content removed by helping them report it to eSafety.

Unwanted or unsafe online contact

One of the most unsafe types of contact is ‘grooming’. This is when a sexual predator contacts and builds a friendship with a child to gain their trust, to sexually abuse them. The person can be a stranger or someone known to the child. The child may welcome the attention at first and not realise when it becomes unsafe. 

Grooming by a sexual predator can happen online through social media, gaming and other accounts that allow public or private contact. The predator may arrange to meet the child offline, then sexually abuse them in person. Or they may sexually abuse them online through explicit conversations, photos, videos or live webcam footage.

Any sexual activity between a child and an adult is child sexual abuse. Sexual activity may be sexual intercourse, sexual touching or sexual acts that happen in person or online. It may involve coercion, force or implied force. Online child sexual abuse is any form of sexual abuse of a child under 18 that has a link to the online environment. Find out more about child sexual abuse online.

If someone in your care is in danger now, call Tripe Zero (000) immediately.

If someone is making a child in your care feel uncomfortable or scared online, help them collect evidence then block the person and report them to the site. If you suspect the child is being groomed or sexually abused online reassure them that they are not in trouble, then report it to the site and to the Australian Federal Police via the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) website.

If you or anyone in your care finds online content that shows child sexual abuse, you can report it to eSafety and we can take further action to investigate and remove it. This helps combat the trade in child sexual abuse material and the revictimisation of survivors. 

Further help

There are many counselling and support services available to help children and young people who are experiencing or impacted by online abuse.

eSafety offers online safety training for professionals who work with young people, including those in out-of-home care. This includes youth workers, social workers, counsellors and psychologists. 

The training covers:

• online safety issues such as cyberbullying, online pornography, sending nudes and sexting, time online, gaming and unsafe contact
• eSafety’s powers to have serious cyberbullying, image-based abuse and child sexual abuse material removed online
• resources to support the online wellbeing of young people.

Register your interest now, or for more information visit our working with children and young people page and Training and presentations FAQs.
 

The Association of Children’s Welfare Agencies (ACWA) was awarded funding as part of the 2020-2021 Online Safety Grants Program. ACWA will develop and deliver co-designed online training resources for children and young people in out-of-home care and their caregivers. More information about this project can be found at eSafety Round 1 Grants 2020. 

To further support the sector, eSafety is developing tailored advice for out-of-home carers and support workers, along with tools for recording and responding to incidents. This will include advice on how to address online incidents, how to effectively engage with young people about online safety, and how to manage device use in out-of-home living arrangements.