SAFE BY DESIGN · EPISODE 17

The Block Button Is a Boundary

Tara knew exactly where the block button was. What she was missing was permission to use it without feeling unkind.

Tara was staying the weekend, and Riya had brought two mugs of hot chocolate to the spare room as an excuse to say goodnight. She found Tara on the bed with her phone in both hands, frowning at it like homework.

“Who's keeping you up?” Riya asked. “A boy from another school,” Tara said. “He's friends with Mira's cousin.” She turned the screen round.

Four messages in twenty minutes: was she there, why was she ignoring him, a line meant to make her feel unkind, then just two question marks. It had started weeks ago as jokes about a video they both liked. Lately it came every night, heavier whenever she was slow to reply.

“I know I could block him. But that's so rude. What if he tells everyone?”

Tara, 13