This advice is to help parents and carers talk about, and support, 9-12 year olds with online sexual harassment. We know this topic can seem overwhelming to talk about with this age group. This advice aims to give you the language and confidence to do it in a safe, positive and age appropriate way.
This person was just being themselves and they had really short hair and they were a girl but they looked a little like a boy. Then all these people online ganged up and were being mean to her because she looked different. And that stopped her posting things and made her really upset.
Girl, 9-11
You might feel surprised and shocked because I don’t know who would send a photo like that. It’s just really inappropriate.
Boy, 9-11
They could have sent pictures all round the school, adding things on to it to.
Girl, 9-11
How can I talk about this in an age appropriate way?
Instead of ‘online sexual harassment’, we recommend using the term ‘cyberbullying’ with children under 13 and describe the sort of bullying it is. E.g. making fun of how someone looks.
