Online Safety
Scope of this chapter
This regional guidance is a range of supporting practice resources drawn from national legislation and recognised best practice, which may aid professional understanding and judgement. It is aimed as a source of support and places no requirements or expectations on practitioners or services. Your local Board may have developed local policies or guidance on some of these themes, which can be found on their website or local Contacts and Practice Resources section.
This chapter is about online safety. The chapter explores the risks and benefits of using the internet and considerations for when supporting adults to manage those risks.
This chapter contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government License v.3.0.
Amendment
In September 2025, this new chapter was added to the Safeguarding Adults Practice Guidance section.
Technology is an integral part of life for many people and impacts how we learn, interact with others, work and communicate. Online devices such as mobile/smart phones, laptops, computers, tablets and games consoles offer many benefits, and when used safely can help to improve a person’s well-being and independence. Some of the benefits include:
- Opportunities for social interaction;
- Information can be provided in an accessible way;
- Online shopping, banking, and paying bills can help to maintain independence with managing finances;
- Online advice and learning;
- Telecare/care lines and use of apps by care providers can support the provision of care and support;
- Being able to monitor the safety of loved ones with the use of ring doorbells and tracking devices.
The internet can also pose risks for us all. It is important that education and support to use the internet safely is provided to the adult with care and support needs where required. The adult may be a victim or a perpetrator of abuse online.
Sometimes abuse can be amplified online because of the reach that social networking sites have and the perceived anonymity that the internet can give people.
E-Safety is the generic term that refers to raising awareness about how everybody can protect themselves when using digital technology.
The Online Safety Act 2023 introduced new criminal offences including:
- Sending a message with information the sender knows to be false with the intention of causing non-trivial psychological or physical harm to a likely audience without reasonable excuse;
- Sending a message with a threat of death, serious injury, rape or serious financial loss where the sender intends the recipient to fear that threat will be carried out (or is reckless as to whether the recipient has such fear);
- Sending or showing an electronic communication with flashing images with the intention to cause harm to an adult with epilepsy;
- Communicating, publishing or showing material capable (and with the intention) of encouraging or assisting the serious self-harm of another, even if the sender cannot identify the recipients and even if the self-harm does not occur;
- Intentionally sending or giving images of any person’s genitals to another person with the intention to cause the recipient alarm, distress or humiliation, or for the purposes of sexual gratification whilst reckless as to whether the recipient will be caused alarm, distress or humiliation;
- Four offences in relation to intentional sharing or threatening to share intimate images without consent, which do not necessarily require proof that the sender intended to cause alarm, distress or humiliation. This replaces the previous offences relating to so-called ‘revenge porn’ where there was a requirement for an intention to cause distress.
Internet abuse may also include cyberbullying or online bullying. It may also be referred to as trolling. This is when an adult is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another person using the internet and/or mobile devices. It is possible for one victim to be bullied by many perpetrators.
For further information, please refer to the National Bullying Helpline website.
Examples of sexual abuse and exploitation online are:
- Sharing and production of abusive images;
- Being victim to revenge porn (when a previously taken video or photograph, which was taken with or without consent, is shared online);
- Being forced to take part in or watch pornographic content;
- Grooming.
Sexually coerced extortion or 'sextortion' is a type of blackmail where someone tries to use intimate, naked or sexual photos or videos of children and young people to make them do things they don't want to do. Sometimes, these photos or videos are taken without their knowledge, and the person uses these to blackmail the adult and force them to pay money or do something against their will.
Image based sexual abuse is when someone takes, shares or threatens to share sexually explicit images or videos of an adult without their knowledge, consent or capacity to consent and with the aim of causing them distress. This can also include digitally altered images. Image based sexual abuse is a broad term and covers many different abusive behaviours.
Image based sexual abuse is a criminal offence. Online and offline sexual abuse has the same impact no matter how the abuse took place. Victims of this type of abuse can experience further abuse or be retraumatised when abuse is recorded, uploaded and shared by others online.
Image based sexual abuse can involve the following:
| Deepfakes | Deepfakes are digitally altered images, videos or audio. An individual may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to create or transform an image of someone into a sexually explicit image or video. It may also be called synthetic sexual content, deepfake porn, fake porn or morphing. |
| Downblousing | Where an image is taken down someone’s top without their consent, is detailed in CPS guidance. See: Guidance from the CPS. |
| Revenge Porn/Intimate Image Abuse/ Non-Consensual Pornography/Sexting/Sextortion/Webcam Blackmail | This is when someone shares or threatens to share intimate images or videos of the adult. They may do this online or via social media sites, such as subscription website or porn sites. They may also share or threaten to share them with friends, family members or others. For further information, see: Revenge Porn Helpline Stop NCII Internet Watch Foundation |
| Upskirting | When someone takes a photograph underneath the adult’s clothing without their permission. This is often done to view the adult’s genitals or buttocks, with or without underwear, for sexual gratification (sexual arousal or pleasure) and/or to cause the adult fear, alarm or humiliation. Upskirting became an offence in England and Wales in 2019 under Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019. |
Grooming is when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with an adult whether online or in person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them. The perpetrator may:
- Be dominant and persistent or may hide their identity and present as another, such as an authority figure, romantic figure or mentor;
- Use financial tactics such as gift giving or may give the adult attention and support;
- Encourage the adult to move conversations to platforms that use end to end encryption which means only the sender and recipient can see the content of the message. This makes it more difficult to protect the adult;
- Isolate the adult from their friends, family, carers and services, leading to dependence on the perpetrator;
- Use blackmail to make an adult feel guilt and shame or introduce the idea of 'secrets' to control, frighten and intimidate.
It is important to remember that the adult may not understand that they have been groomed. They may have complicated feelings, like loyalty, admiration, love, as well as fear, distress and confusion around their interaction with the with the perpetrator(s).
Stalking and harassment is fixated, obsessive, unwanted and repeated behaviour that makes the adult feel pestered and harassed. It includes behaviour that happens two or more times, directed at or towards the adult by another individual, which causes alarm, distress and there could be a fear violence. It can occur both online and offline.
For details on how to report stalking and harassment, see: Report a stalker.
For support for victims of stalking, see: Paladin National Stalking Advocacy Service.
Scams/fraud are the most likely crime perpetrated through the internet. They can involve financial abuse and/ or learning private information from the adult. They usually involve some sort of deception.
Types of online scams/fraud include:
| Romance scams | This includes using dating websites, social networks and chat rooms to deceive the adult into giving personal details or money. Romance scammers do not target a specific gender, sexuality, race or age. It may using fake profiles and some scammers will impersonate celebrities to attract victims. |
| Free Trials/Offers, Health Scams, Repair Scams, Competition and/or Shopping Scams | Scammers will make the adult believe they have won a prize, get them to pay for an item that does not exist or offer a sub-standard service or product or link an adult into a service or product that they have inadvertently signed up for. |
| Identity Theft | Examples of identity theft include, taking an adult’s name and information to open new bank accounts, apply for a passport or apply for benefits. |
| Mandate Fraud | Fraudsters will pose as a service or organisation used by the adult and ask them to change the bank transfer details that payments are made to in order to obtain the money. |
| Pharming | Pharming is when hackers redirect traffic from a genuine website to another, such as a fake ecommerce or banking site. This is a difficult scam to protect people from as although the adult may have entered the right address to bring them to a particular site, it sends them to a fake one to try to get information. |
| Phishing | A common trick sending a fake email pretending to be from a bank or another organisation of trust such as HMRC or PayPal. This email will ask the adult to visit a website and log in with account details. The site looks just like the genuine website but is really a fake site set up by criminals to get details. |
For further information, see Friends Against Scams.
Scams, fraud or cybercrime can be reported to Action Fraud which is the UK’s national reporting centre. See: Action Fraud: National Cyber Crime Reporting Centre.
Social networking and dating sites
Social networking sites and dating sites are often used by perpetrators as an easy way to access adults, children and young people for sexual abuse. In addition, radical and extremist groups may use social networking to engage adults in exposure to harmful content, extremist ideologies or to promote gang related violence; this is similar to the grooming process and exploits the same vulnerabilities.
Addiction Issues
Social media platforms are designed to be addictive with features like notifications, likes, and scrolling endlessly through feeds. The adult may find themselves spending excessive amounts of time on these platforms, which can lead to neglect of self-care, their home and in-person relationships.
Health and the internet
People can gain support from the internet and be a part of specific communities for their disability or health condition which can be invaluable in providing support and learning. However, there are risks that adults with certain conditions are targeted via the internet to cause harm to themselves or others.
The internet has been used to physically harm people with epilepsy hence the inclusion of this in the Online Safety Act 2023.
Social media can negatively impact on the adult’s self-esteem and how they view themselves.
The internet can be triggering for some adults and it can be hard to restrict or filter out content which may cause harm.
Examples include:
- Eating disorders – which have been linked to social media use due to the increasing importance of self-image particularly in young people. It can define how an adult perceives they should look, influence their poor eating habits and thought processes. It can also reinforce and normalise an eating disorder;
- Self-harming behaviours and suicide - self-harming sites can encourage and support adults to harm themselves;
- Depression and anxiety – consistently viewing or reading about negative events could impact on wellbeing and sleep patterns.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
AI now plays a part in sexual abuse and exploitation as it has the ability to generate material that is partially or entirely computer-generated. They are usually produced using software which converts a text description into an image. This technology is developing rapidly, the images created can now be very realistic, and recent examples are difficult to differentiate from unaltered photographs.
Character AI is a chatbot which is designed to provide human-like responses and can be customised to be based on real people or fictional characters. For further information about the safety considerations of Character AI, see: Internet Matters, What is Character AI? What parents need to know. Although the information is directed towards use by children, the same concerns could apply to adults.
The same safeguarding principles will apply regardless of whether the abuse has occurred online or offline. See: Disclosure and Raising a Concern.
It is important that any evidence is preserved so screen shots, screen records and/or videos should be saved. Chronologies are also important to build up evidence of contacts made.
Harmful content can be reported online. See: Report Harmful Content.
It may be useful to consider the following when assessing the risk to the adult:
- How much time the adult spends online;
- Which social media sites are being used by the adult;
- The adult’s understanding of the implications of their actions;
- The adult’s understanding of consent;
- Support available to the adult to keep themselves safe online e.g. use of educational material, being shown how to manage privacy settings;
- Who the adult is connecting with online and whether they are aware that someone they are connecting with may not be who they say they are;
- Whether the adult understands that social media could be shared more widely, including with people the adult does not know, without them knowing or being able to stop it;
- Understanding of the kinds of online activities which would be illegal, inappropriate, or break the site’s terms & conditions;
- Whether the adult is aware of their online rights and know where to go for help if they needed it;
- What support has been offered if the adult is receiving provider services e.g. risk assessments, tool kits;
- Mental Capacity Act assessments may need to be in place if the adult is not deemed to be able to use any part of the internet safely to both protect them and/or others with regards to internet use.
Last Updated: September 11, 2025
v7
You can translate the content of this page by selecting a language in the select box.
Copyright © tri.x