SAFE BY DESIGN · EPISODE 15

You Can Tell Me

Children rarely hide an online worry because of the worry. They hide it because of what they think telling will cost.

For two days Arjun hadn't asked for his game once. The tablet sat face down on his shelf. Riya put it down to a busy week at school, until Wednesday evening, when he hovered by her desk and asked a question in a very small voice.

“Mumma, if someone sends you something bad, does the tablet get taken away?”

Arjun, 9

Riya kept her face still. “Do you want to show me?” After a long moment, he fetched it.

It was a chain message from a player he didn't know, saying his account would be deleted unless he sent it on to ten players. To a nine-year-old it had sounded completely real.

Then he said the part that stopped her. “I didn't tell you because Papa said the tablet would go in the drawer.”