A mother has told Sky News how her 11-year-old daughter was groomed into sending sexually explicit photographs of herself to men online and how this spiralled into physical sexual abuse.
Warning: This article contains details that some readers may find distressing
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) says this is a growing problem and self-generated child abuse images – where a child is encouraged by someone online into sexualised behaviour – now makes up a large proportion of the imagery that they are removing from the internet.
It is calling on the new government to make keeping children safe online a priority.
It comes as a senior police officer has also called for further protection of young girls online. Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth, who is national lead for policing violence against women and girls, says the influence of young boys online is “quite terrifying”.
The 11-year-old girl’s mother, who we will refer to as Hailey, says she is speaking to Sky News because she feels her daughter has been let down by the police and social services.
She also feels she has “no one left to turn to”, adding: “I think she’s going to end up dead or taken. She’s meeting people she doesn’t even know.”
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‘Constant messages’ followed by threats
Hailey says the whole problem began when one older boy asked her daughter for a photograph of her in her bra.
The 11-year-old, which we will call Michaela, agreed to send it.
Hailey says: “One picture went to one boy, then it went to a whole class. Then it went to other kids in the school. Then it went to about four different schools. Then everybody outside school, anybody and everybody you can think of.”
Hailey speaks to Sky News’ home editor Jason Farrell
Michaela’s photo and phone number were added to all-male online chat groups.
When Hailey checked her daughter’s phone, she discovered boys and men were asking for more explicit photos and some were sending the 11-year-old intimate pictures of themselves.
Hailey says: “There’s just messages, constant messages and when she says no, then there’s threats.”
Sky News has seen some of these messages which include threats and requests for sexual images.
After a while Michaela started going missing.
Hailey says: “She was running off, going to parks, doing sexual favours, getting money from people we don’t know. Me and my sister were chasing her and she’s just disappearing.”
Hailey believes the deluge of inappropriate online sexual attention had a devastating impact on Michaela who is now 13.
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‘Hidden pandemic’ warning
Aged 12, an educational psychology assessment found Michaela had “low self-esteem” and was “seeking opportunities to gain approval” which led to a “fixation on social media” and “positive feedback and approval from others”.
The report says she became “known for sharing sexual images” and was being sexually abused by “unknown men”.
A separate council report reads: “Police have been involved in exploring various crimes against (Michaela) including statutory rape, child sexual exploitation, sending of indecent images of a child/minor and sexual assault.”
In May this year a study from the Global Child Safety Institute at Edinburgh University warned of a “hidden pandemic”, with a study predicting that one in eight children, that’s more than 300 million worldwide, are victims of online sexual exploitation and abuse.
The IWF says the largest age group exploited into sending inappropriate images are aged 11 to 13, nearly all of them girls.
Last year they found 275,000 child abuse webpages – a quarter of a million of them, 92%, contained pictures where the child had photographed themselves.
IWF hotline manager, Tamsin McNally, says: “We’re seeing 7 to 10-year-olds depicted in this imagery more often and sometimes they don’t know what they’re doing is sexual. They are being asked to take part in a game.
“Those pictures and those videos are then spread all over the internet.
“Everyone’s a few clicks away from accidentally landing on this kind of content, which is why we have a public reporting page available for people to report if they do find it.”
The IWF wants the new government to legislate for better age verification to prevent children accessing inappropriate content online and ensure additional safety measures are introduced to end-to-end encrypted messaging apps.
Chief Executive Susie Hargreaves OBE said: “The continued roll out of end-to-end encrypted messaging apps without additional safety features risk creating safe spaces for predators to distribute child sexual abuse imagery.
“New ministers will have very full in-trays, but it is essential they get an early start on these challenges.”
‘The police always tell me it’s my fault’
Hailey also wants better policing.
She did report what was happening to her daughter from the outset but feels police didn’t properly investigate and authorities failed to protect her.
Hailey says after reporting an online threat of violence against her daughter, the police officer came to their house and only spoke to Michaela about being on the internet, but didn’t properly investigate the person making the threats.
The mother feels she was also blamed for allowing her daughter to have a phone and access to the internet.
She says her daughter lost faith in the police.
In a handwritten letter to Sky News, Michaela says in her own words: “The police always tell me it’s my fault. Since the age of eleven I’ve been sexually assaulted and none of my cases have been took on, they all got closed.”
A letter Michaela wrote to Sky’s Jason Farrell
Hailey feels like police washed their hands of her daughter.
She said: “They just keep saying my daughter won’t talk. They can’t do nothing without Michaela making a statement.
“And I’m saying, ‘but I’m doing it on behalf of her because she’s only 11, 12, 13’.
“And they just say, ‘unless Michaela is willing to speak, we can’t do it’. But then I’m saying to them ‘but she’s mentally messed up. She’s not able. Maybe she’s scared, maybe she’s petrified’.”
Council wrongly sending out names of vulnerable children
Hailey is also critical of social services. She says one social worker failed to respond to messages and another’s only advice was for her to “pray”.
She is also concerned about data breaches, saying on six occasions she was wrongly sent personal information of vulnerable children by the council.
Hailey says this includes: “Children’s details, names, addresses, phone numbers, where they live, what school they go to, what’s happening to them, what abuse is happening, why social services are involved, parents’ names – everything.”
She says this included personal information about a boy who was accused of sexually assaulting her daughter, including the fact that he’d previously faced a similar allegation.
Tamsin McNally is the IWF’s hotline manager
In a letter, social services apologised for this but added that they would not be informing the subjects of the data breach.
Hailey feels her daughter is still vulnerable.
A social worker has written to the council warning that she is “at risk” and should be moved out of the area.
An advocate also wrote in an email: “How many more safeguarding alerts need to be raised before the child receives the much-needed help?”
To protect the identity of the child, we’ve chosen not to name the area in the UK she is from, but we did contact the local authority which confirmed to Sky News they had received the “at risk” warning but said it is the final decision of the receiving local authority regarding any housing offer made.
The council also confirmed several data breaches but insisted they had been properly investigated and dealt with.
A council spokesperson added: “We have a clear strategy and commitment to support children who are vulnerable to child sexual exploitation. This includes robust planning, intervention and review by a multi-agency team of professionals focused on Child Sexual Exploitation.
“Plans are bespoke to young people and will provide targeted intervention to reduce risk. We work collaboratively with young people and their families to ensure that victims’ voices are always heard, and families are strengthened as a result.”
Police having difficulty identifying suspects
A spokesperson for the area police force told us that Michaela was offered support and there have been several police investigations.
Firstly, after she shared an image of herself with another boy in 2022, but the image was deemed not to be indecent, and so they focused on education – “offering advice and support on boundaries, choices and the implications of sharing intimate images”.
They also investigated after Michaela was sexually assaulted at a retail park, but “due to a lack of CCTV and direct witness evidence, no suspects were identified”.
In October last year they investigated after Michaela was sent an incident image by a man she had met online, who then threatened her.
The force says “difficulties gathering evidence at the time meant no suspects were identified”, but added “a new review of the circumstances has identified further lines of enquiry which are now being explored”.
A police spokesperson added: “As a force we work hard to ensure that that all victims of sexual abuse, whatever their age, feel able to come forward to tell us about their experiences. We are ready to listen, believe, and to support, while acting against those responsible.
“It is recognised that this young girl is at high risk of sexual exploitation, and so her needs and the support she requires are regularly discussed at partnership meetings.
“We would never seek to blame a victim for the sexual attacks that take place against them, and we are committed to continuing to working with the girl and her family to ensure her safety.
“It’s vital that all victims of sexual abuse, whatever their age, come forward to tell us about their experiences.”