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Sextortion & AI Fake Nudes: What Every Parent of a Teen Needs to Know”
Description
A teenager no longer has to send a nude for a sexual image of them to end up online.
AI can now take an ordinary photograph of a child or teenager and create a convincing fake nude. Add sextortion, online grooming and the sharing of intimate images, and the digital landscape our children are navigating has changed dramatically.
So what do parents actually need to know — and how can we protect our kids without terrifying them or constantly monitoring everything they do?
In this episode, Rachel talks to Emma Hardy from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a world-leading organisation working to find and remove child sexual abuse images from the internet.
Emma explains how teenagers can be groomed into sharing sexual images, why 11–13 year olds are particularly vulnerable, and why younger children are increasingly appearing in the material the IWF encounters.
We also explore the alarming growth of AI-generated sexual images and “nudifying” apps, which can turn an ordinary photograph into a fake nude without the person ever having shared an intimate image.
Emma explains how these images are being used to humiliate, bully and blackmail young people — and how sextortion can escalate frighteningly quickly.
But this isn't an episode about panicking or taking technology away from our children.
It's about giving them — and ourselves — the knowledge to respond.
We cover:
- What parents need to know about sextortion
- How online grooming can start with seemingly harmless games and flattery
- Why children may not realise they're being manipulated
- How AI can create fake nude images from ordinary photographs
- What parents need to know about nudifying apps
- Why boys and girls can be targeted differently
- Why teenagers should never pay someone who is blackmailing them
- The risks of cameras and connected devices in bedrooms
- Whether parents should allow photographs of their children to be posted online
- How to talk about nudes and online sexual risks without frightening your child
- Why family conversations are one of our most powerful online-safety tools
- What to do if your teenager has already shared an intimate image
- How the Report Remove service can help stop images spreading
- Why your first reaction matters enormously if your child comes to you for help
Perhaps the most important message in this episode is simple: if something does go wrong, we want our child to come to us.
Emma's advice is to resist anger, stay calm and make sure they understand that being manipulated, groomed or blackmailed does not make them responsible for the actions of the offender.
We can't anticipate everything our teenagers will encounter online. But we can give them knowledge, boundaries and a trusted adult they know they can turn to when something goes wrong.
THE BEST PROTECTION:
Keep devices out of bedrooms and bathrooms.
Read my devices guide, with links to all of the relevant episodes, here
KEY RESOURCES:
- TALK resource
- Report Remove tool
- Create a Family Agreement
- UK Safer Internet Centre website - https://saferinternet.org.uk/
- Internet Matters web