Cyberbullying: how to protect our children online

Of all the dangers surrounding a connected minor, cyberbullying and grooming are among the scariest and the worst talked about at home. In this stretch of my conversation with psychologist Barbara Diez we put numbers and method to a problem we tend to look at out of the corner of our eye. In 2022 alone, Spain’s Interior Ministry recorded around a thousand reports of sexual abuse of children and teenagers, and the unsettling part is that most of the groomers had no criminal record. They don’t match the picture of the monster we imagine.

Barbara breaks down the pattern set out in Save the Children’s Viral Violence report. The groomer approaches, builds a bond, weighs the risk, isolates the victim from their circle, starts steering the conversation towards sex and ends up asking for material. It’s a process, not an impulse, and that is exactly why it can be spotted in time. The takeaway is not to ban screens, it’s to talk. Explain to children what this is from a very young age, in language suited to their age, so they never feel alone or without anyone to turn to. Socialising the issue, once again, as the best defence.