Where to report online concerns or risks
Grooming or other illegal behaviour
If you want to report someone who is behaving suspiciously online towards a child, you should contact 999 if it is an emergency situation, or otherwise make a report to CEOP - https://www.ceop.police.uk/safety-centre/, the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre.
Criminal content online
If you see any criminal content online, you should report this to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) - https://www.iwf.org.uk. Criminal content in the UK includes child sexual abuse images, criminally obscene adult content, as well as non-photographic child sexual abuse images.
Online content which incites hatred on the grounds of race, religion, disability and sexual orientation or transgender identity, should be reported to True Vision - http://report-it.org.uk/home, which tackles all forms of hate crime. True Vision will give you information on content which indicates hatred and how to report it.
Media content inappropriate for children
If you want to make a complaint about an advert, television or radio programme, film, newspaper, magazine, video game or other type of content online of offline, that you think is unsuitable for children, you can report it using ParentPort - http://www.parentport.org.uk/.
Getting help/advice
Many popular online services have some really useful help and advice areas, as well as ways to report and block content that is not allowed on the site (e.g. cyberbullying). You can also set up parental controls and restrict in-app purchases.
- Playstation - https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/get-help/help-library/my-account/parental-controls/how-to-file-a-complaint-against-another-playstation-network-user/
- Skype - https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10001/how-do-i-report-abuse-by-someone-in-skype?frompage=search&q=report+abuse&fromSearchFirstPage=false
- Tumblr - http://www.childnet.com/resources/how-to-make-a-report/tumblr
- XboxOne - https://enforcement.xbox.com/en-GB/Home/HowTo#sub-topic2-0
- AskFM - https://safety.ask.fm/safety-tools/
- Twitter - https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/twitter-report-violation
- Facebook - http://www.childnet.com/resources/how-to-make-a-report/Facebook/
- Instagram - https://help.instagram.com/165828726894770/
- Kik Messenger - https://help.kik.com/hc/en-us/articles/217680878-I-m-being-harassed-on-Kik-What-can-I-do-
- Roblox - https://en.help.roblox.com/hc/en-us/articles/203312410
- Snapchat - https://support.snapchat.com/en-US/i-need-help
- YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/intl/en-GB/yt/about/policies/#reporting-and-enforcement
- WhatsApp - settings > Account > Privacy > Blocked Contacts
- Mobile phones
- All UK mobile phone providers have malicious or nuisance call, text or picture message centres set up and have procedures in place to deal with such instances. They will help you to change the number of the person being bullied if necessary. If you want to prosecute the perpetrator contact the police. The mobile provider will work closely with the police and can usually trace calls for them.