Spot the pattern. Beat the pattern.
KS3 · The Safeguard Hub · Press F11 for full screen, scroll for next slide
How can you tell who someone really is online?
Honest answer: often you can't. So we watch behaviour, not profiles. The pattern is the warning.
Compliments. Interest. Someone who "gets you" and takes your side.
It feels great. That is the point.
"Our chats are special." "Don't tell anyone."
People with good intentions never need your silence. Secrecy is the biggest red flag there is.
"Let's move to a private app." "Your mates would just be jealous."
Away from the group, away from grown-ups, away from anyone who might notice.
"Prove you trust me. Send a pic."
The request itself is the warning. A real friend never needs proof like this.
The nicest person you've ever met can turn into threats in one message.
"Pay me or I send it to everyone." This is called sextortion, and it especially targets boys.
Don't pay. Paying proves you'll pay. Stop replying, but keep the chat as evidence.
Block. And tell an adult. The threat almost always collapses the moment an adult is involved.
An adult sending sexual messages to a child is committing a crime. Threatening with images, real or AI-faked, is a crime.
You are the victim. You will be protected, not punished.
It is fixable. Report Remove (Childline + IWF) helps under 18s get images taken down. Fake and AI images count too.
No photo is ever worth harming yourself over. Ever.
CEOP at ceop.police.uk, straight to specialist police. Childline 0800 1111.
Any trusted adult in school. 999 if anyone is in danger right now.
Write one sentence you would say to a friend who told you this was happening to them.
That sentence might be the most important thing you write this year.