your story matters

Your insights have the power to make real change. We want to make sure that our generation’s thoughts and experiences are at the heart of conversations around online safety.

Your Privacy

We will add your story to our website once we have reviewed it. If you share your first name and age with us they will be the only details that we share with your story. For more details see our privacy policy

Do’s and Don’ts

We delete responses that contain contact details, deeply graphic details that could harm our community, personally identifiable details other than your first name, abusive submissions or spam.

Trigger warning

Stories may contain details of abuse or mental illness including self harm and suicide. We are here to share stories and create change, but we are not a helpline. If you are struggling, please seek support, and visit our Get Help page.

Read YOUR stories

Stories may contain details of abuse or mental illness including self harm and suicide. If you are struggling, please seek support, and visit our Get Help page.

Age 22 Behind Our Screens Age 22 Behind Our Screens

the ‘Send Nudes’ craze began

When I was around 13 years old the ‘Send Nudes’ craze began in my year group. It became the norm that girls phones would be overloaded with nightly messages from various boys in my year asking what underwear they were wearing, complimenting the way they looked around school and eventually inflating my ego so much that I felt like I owed them photos of me in my underwear. It was constant. Every evening, multiple different guys asking the same things.

Lucy

Read More
Age 22 Behind Our Screens Age 22 Behind Our Screens

I would often chat to a boy online called “Jake"

I first downloaded Instagram at 11 years old, we would chat to strangers online, post whatever we felt like, it was such an exciting time. I would often chat to a boy online called "Jake" who was American and 14 years old. I later found out he was 45 a woman and chatting to more than half the boys and girls in my class... Halfway through the school year our grade was told we had a "surprise" meeting in the auditorium. Our head of maths was holding this meeting. She was a loud and Strict American woman, She had the projector on with images of all of the grades social media profiles, mine included. We sat down shocked and silent. She then explained that she had made a fake profile "Jake" a 14 year old boy who liked to skateboard. Oops! She went through everyone who had accepted Jakes follow request on instagram the chats we had with him and all the information we had shared. She showed us from this information she knew where we lived and how to groom us online. We sat in this auditorium stunned and embarrassed. Although I don't know how ethical this whole project was this was over a decade ago and I still remember it to this day.

Sara

Read More

THe internet shaped us. now we’re shaping it

Join us