For Safer Internet Day 2025, we hosted a workshop that brought together academics, policymakers and frontline professionals from education, law enforcement and safeguarding. The event examined evolving developments in image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) and the challenges of addressing young people’s digital sexual behaviours amid rapidly changing technology. Featuring a series of 15‑minute presentations from a uniquely diverse group of experts—interspersed with Q&A sessions and a concluding World Café discussion—the workshop not merely identified problems but also generated practical, collaborative solutions.
Run under Chatham House Rules, the open and honest discussions revealed that the pitfalls of current prevention and response frameworks extend far beyond legal definitions. Instead, these challenges are deeply embedded in societal structures, cultural narratives, and our collective approaches to risk and harm.
Challenging the status quo
Participants expressed frustration with binary frameworks focusing solely on legal prohibitions, with reactionary proposals—such as banning phones, restricting access to digital devices and enforcing stricter social media controls—adding further layers of prohibition without addressing the underlying issues. While offering an intuitively simple solution, such proposals reveal a lack of nuance in online safety discourses, including, as some participants noted, the benefits of anonymity and ease of access in online support services for young people experiencing IBSA.
It was agreed that a legal response is rarely productive, often causing more harm than good. Participants identified contradictions, including when adolescents can consent to sex but cannot legally possess images of their partners, while non‑consensual sharing leaves victims reluctant to seek help due to fears of punishment.
Participants noted that while it is easy to identify the shortcomings of current legal and educational responses, these critiques often fail in practice and practitioners have limited scope to address the topic in more productive ways. Educators, police and parents are caught between top‑down policy pressures and bottom‑up societal expectations. For instance, while police are reluctant to criminalise young people involved in image sharing, educators are constrained by risk‑focused strategies that emphasise warning over dialogue, often due to fears of being accused of encouraging young people to engage in these behaviours or of promoting illegal activities.
Indeed, current Relationship and Sex Education (RSE) guidance in England explicitly directs schools to teach young people the law in relation to sharing sexual images, leaving little space for conversations about IBSA that move beyond victim blaming and ‘just say no’ abstinence-based messaging. There are limited possibilities for restorative responses or nuanced conversations about consent, mutuality, respect and ethical behaviour. The injustice of current frameworks was eloquently summed up by one of our speakers Louisa Street, who proclaimed, “you can’t eradicate a crime by policing the behaviours of victims.”
Highlighting the difficulty of shifting the Overton window, however, the solutions participants offered oftentimes reverted to an emphasis on risk and harm reduction and how best to protect young people online, crowding out deeper engagement with what it means to be ‘safe’ and a vision of digital life beyond a deficit model approach to mitigating its worst excesses.
The problem of shame and our call for ‘safe uncertainty’
The workshop underscored that issues of IBSA are not isolated incidents; rather, they reflect multifaceted societal problems. They are not, therefore, isolated to young people, equally also impacting and perpetuated by adults. A pervasive theme was the role of shame, with Vicky Stubbs from the Sex Education Forum remarking that “without shame, acts like threats to share images or deepfakes would lose their power. Why should we shame someone when they have done something that doesn’t hurt anyone else?” This insight challenged us to consider whether shame is an effective deterrent or simply an enabler of harmful stigma.
Reimagining our response to IBSA requires more than incremental legal reform—it calls for a systemic shift that empowers both young people and adults to navigate digital spaces responsibly and ethically. To pursue this vision, we are developing educational interventions grounded in the principles of safe uncertainty. This framework acknowledges the fear and complexity of digital interactions while creating space for honest, critical dialogue and ethical reflection. Rather than expecting adults to know all the latest apps and viral trends, have all the answers, or micromanage every online risk, our role is to work alongside young people, equipping them with the skills and tools they need to navigate digital spaces safely while enjoying their benefits.
Embracing ‘safe uncertainty’ involves shifting the Overton window away from reactionary, risk-averse measures that stifle conversation and marginalise young people. It moves beyond adversarial dynamics by forging partnerships that address shared challenges, empower young people to speak openly about their experiences without judgment, and create spaces for ethical, critical thinking.
Thank you to everyone who attended and contributed to our workshop. The insights left us inspired and eager to continue this essential conversation. Stay up to date with our Reimagining RSE project, which is developing strategies for embedding safe uncertainty into educational interventions with young people and sign up to our upcoming free online training event.
We are grateful to the University of Surrey’s Institute of Advanced Studies for funding the workshop.
Examples of feedback from our participants:
“My mind is buzzing with how we can ensure these events are more regular, and how we can utilise and embed resources and research rather than being shut away in a room!”
“The event brought together a fascinating range of practitioners, academics, law enforcement, tech industry and regulation and the contributions made for rich conversation. I particularly liked the emphasis on working towards practical action points that have the potential to make meaningful change in the lives of victims and survivors of intimate image abuse.”
“One of the best Safer Internet Day-related events I have attended in fifteen years of doing them. A far more evidence-led and critical tone, trying to get to grips with the complexities of IBSA and the need for buy in from all stakeholders.”
Note: While run under Chatham House Rules, the cited participants gave permission for us to include their identity. We wanted to give credit where due for these important contributions.
