Officers urge parents to report online safety concerns during summer holidays

As the school summer break is well underway, we are urging parents and guardians to report any online safety concerns they may have about their children to us.

We know the summer holidays mean that young people perhaps spend more time on their devices and with friends both online and in person.

However, it is important that anyone who notices a change in their child’s behaviour or relationships to monitor it and report it to us if you become worried.

Online offenders will often exploit the summer holidays to engage young people in criminal acts when they know that the support of school is not available.

It’s important to have conversations with children and young people about the type of content they are consuming online, the relationships they have both on and offline and how they can make the right decisions to protect themselves while using online platforms.

Parents and guardians can use parental controls on apps, routers and individual devices to enhance the protection of their loved ones online, but it’s also vital that adults speak to children and young people regularly about what they are viewing.

This is because Counter Terrorism Policing and the National Crime Agency are increasingly seeing children being routinely exposed to the most serious harmful online content.

Criminal gangs often use gaming platforms, messaging apps and other online forums to contact children to commit a range of offences from fraud and cybercrime to child sexual abuse and violence or terrorist-related offences.

It is vital that adults take the time to understand the lives of their young people online to help them from falling victim to these networks.

In 2024, MI5 said 39 people it arrested for involvement in terrorism were under 17. Most parents were unaware of their child’s online activity including who they talked to, the content they viewed and the platforms they used.

We know that the online environment can be a sanctuary for children and young people to socialise and form strong bonds, but it also gives anyone with an internet connection the opportunity to reach and potentially exploit vulnerable people around the globe.

It’s important that if you feel that something isn’t right, whether that be:

Anyone with concerns should contact us on 101, use Livechat on our website or call 999 in an emergency.

For practical advice on how to help your child or young person use the internet safely, specific to the child’s age, platforms they use or issue they encounter, visit: Keep Children Safe Online: Information, advice, support - Internet Matters