Bedfordshire Police has launched a safety campaign aimed at teenagers and young people to educate them on how to stay safe online, how to report any concerns and where to access support.
Called #ENDGAME, Bedfordshire Police say the aim of the campaign is to encourage teenagers to think about the potential dangers of being active online.
Statistics from the NSPCC state that there has been an 82 percent rise in online grooming crimes against children in the last five years.
Bedfordshire Police also received 27 reports of online grooming relating to young people aged 17 and under over a 12-month period.
Block, Report, Tell
The campaign is planned to be implemented over the course of several months and will cover a number of different topics, with targeted posts on Snapchat and Instagram aimed at teenagers and young people.
The campaign encourages young people to block, report and tell if something doesn’t feel right.
Bedfordshire Police aim to publish accompanying posts on Facebook and Instagram for parents and carers as well as dedicated campaign pages for both audiences on Bedfordshire Police’s website, containing information and signposting to support.
The first phase of the campaign will focus on online grooming, and asking young people if they know who they are really talking to, what to do if someone is making them uncomfortable and how to report any concerns.
Support is available
Detective Inspector Pete Ward from the force’s Cyber team spoke more on the campaign launch.
“This campaign has been implemented as we want young people to be aware of some of the potential dangers of being active online, how to recognise if they are being groomed and encouraging them to tell someone they trust.
“We are receiving more and more reports of teenagers sharing explicit images with their peers, which presents the risk of being circulated far wider than they imagined, and this can cause a lot of anxiety and stress to the individual involved.
“We want to share our knowledge, and help inform young people and encourage them to think about the consequences, even if they completely trust the person they are sending the images to.
“With so called ‘sextortion’ and revenge porn also becoming increasingly common, we want to be able to give people information, so they know what to do if they are targeted and to know that they are not alone in dealing with it.
“There is support available.”
To find out more about the campaign you can visit Bedfordshire Police’s website here.
