This is a truly awful story about online abuse, but I thought it was worth raising some awareness of. This article contains two really troubling factors; the first about offenders taking advantage of COVID-19 to abuse children, but it also discusses the awful effects that discovery of an abuser has devastating effects on the spouse (and the rest of the family of course).

This highlights the importance of online safety in combating online abuse and how some many parties have a part to play in the solution to this.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/may/14/child-abuse-predator-handbook-lists-ways-to-target-children-during-coronavirus-lockdown

Sadly this is only one of many online harms, but it’s one of the largest and one that causes the most pain.

The issue of the impacts causes on the rest of the family is seldom discussed, but worth being aware of. Thankfully there are some charities that support those left in the wake, and the article highlights PartnerSpeak but in the UK we see organisations like Mothers of Sexually Abused Children (MOSAC) amongst others.

Thanks go to the Australian eSafety Commissioner’s Office for the work highlighting this.