She recalled the events leading up to finding out her son was being groomed online. Now she wants to warn other parents about online child exploitation in the hope that other families will be extra vigilant to the warning signs. Read more stories about Derbyshire people “I really struggled with the explicit nature of the photographs but I recognised that he was being coerced and exploited into sharing images of himself.” His mum, Jane, whose name has been changed to protect the family’s identity, said: “We are a very open and loving family with great relationships with our children so I never thought that this would happen to one of them. The family uncovered hundreds of messages across Snapchat and WhatsApp from strangers, where explicit messages and images had been sent and received, and were now being used on the dark web. Yet a family from Derby had their world turned upside down after a routine check on their 12-year-old son’s phone.
With online safety becoming an increasingly prevalent topic and subject for education, it can be easy to think that children are safe from the threat of online grooming.
