Zara is 13 years old and loves spending time with her friends at the park and playing basketball at the local sports centre. Recently, she has started receiving messages on social media from a friend of a friend. The messages are friendly to begin with but soon the person is asking Zara to share private information and pictures of her body without her clothes. At first Zara replies to the messages, but soon she starts to feel uncomfortable and unsafe.
Involving the school Zara doesn’t know what to do, so she tells her older sister, Aaliyah. Together, they report the messages to a trusted teacher at school who had asked Zara if everything was ok after the teacher noticed Zara wasn’t her usual self. The teacher listens to Zara and reassures her that they will work it out together. The teacher also explains what steps they can take to support her and stop the person from contacting her again. Talking to the designated safeguarding lead The teacher agrees with Zara that they will speak to the school’s Designated Safeguarding Lead, sometimes called a ‘DSL’, who is responsible for how everyone at school keeps children safe. The DSL has a chat with Zara to understand what’s been happening and how she’s feeling so they can work out how to protect her and any other children who might be going through the same thing. They suggest practical steps, such as reporting the messages to the social media platform and blocking the sender. They also suggest telling Zara’s parents so they can get support from the school to protect Zara as well. Finally, they suggest contacting the police to help find out who is sending the messages so they can be stopped. The DSL also speaks with Zara about what they can do at school to support her, such as checking in with a pastoral team member. They explain that they can refer her to other services, but Zara will be involved in any decisions. The DSL tells the other teachers that a pupil is receiving messages asking for private information and pictures of their body with no clothes on. The DSL finds out that several other pupils have mentioned the same thing happening to them. Through speaking to them individually, the DSL finds out more and thinks the messages might be coming from the same person.
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