How do you keep children safe online?

‘The Medianest survey carried out in 2025 (Dutch only) shows that parents are primarily concerned about how much screen time their child is having, followed by the impact of screens on their physical health and only then about the content their children are exposed to,’ explains Sophie Dings, Sustainability Coordinator at DNS Belgium. ‘Concerns about photos being shared online or who their child is in contact with rank much lower.’

‘When it comes to screen use, surveys shows that parents often struggle with their own responsibilities,’ Sophie continues. ‘As a society, we need to recognise that the same applies to cybersecurity skills. Not every adult feels confident in this area which means they don't have ready answers when children come to them with questions.’

Which types of cybercrime do young people face? 

Apenstaartjaren wanted to know more about the things these surveyed young people had experienced over the past year. To be clear, ‘experienced’ in this context doesn’t necessarily mean the incident happened to them personally.

• 38% of young people had already come into contact with phishing scams, making it the most common form of online fraud among young people.
• One in four had encountered attempts to trick them into revealing confidential information such as passwords and user names (pretexting). This often happens through games or fake prize giveaways.
• Hacking (whereby an account is misused) ranked third (17%). 

The list is further supplemented with privacy concerns (such as unknowingly sharing data via apps) and exposure to fake content. Fraud via fake webshops, stolen bank details, peer pressure, cyberbullying, blackmail and sextortion occur less frequently but are increasingly problematic.

Sextortion on the rise

Child Focus has also picked up on a growing threat. ‘The non-consensual sharing of nude images is increasing exponentially,’ says Niels Van Paemel, Policy Adviser at Child Focus. ‘In 2019, we recorded 98 cases but last year that number had risen to 227.’ This year's figures are not yet complete, but the trend is continuing in 2024. 

Sextortion is also on the rise. ‘In 2018, we handled 46 cases. By 2020, that had increased to 101. At the time, we assumed this was a temporary spike linked to COVID, but the numbers remained stable and continued to climb, to 183 cases in 2023 and 179 in 2024 respectively.’

This increase is linked to another trend, i.e. the drop in age at which children are getting their first smartphone. ‘There’s a link between children being more connected at a younger age and becoming victims,’ Van Paemel explains. He also points to a lack of media savviness, particularly around sexuality, at that age.

A relatively recent development is that perpetrators are using artificial intelligence (AI) to create fake images of their victims. ‘This is becoming more common in cases involving sexting, grooming and sextortion. It’s not unusual for young people to be blackmailed online with images that were never actually taken,’ explains Van Paemel. 

Girls sexual, boys financial 

Van Paemel makes a distinction between two types of sextortion: financial or sexual. In sexual cases, fake images are used to pressure victims into sharing real images. In financial blackmail, the aim is to extort money from the victim. ‘For the victim, it makes little difference whether the image is real or fake. Others believe it and that’s what causes harm.’ 

While sexual exploitation online is often assumed to target girls and women, Van Paemel clarifies that this isn’t the case with financial sextortion. ‘That’s the one form where 95% of the victims are boys. They’re often deliberately targeted. Due to their brain development at that age, teenage boys are more prone to risk-taking and criminals exploit that. Combine that with casting a wide net and you get a much higher number of victims. They prey on the naivety of young boys.’

AI also plays a role. This kind of blackmail used to only occur when criminals and victims spoke the same language. ‘You’d see gangs from Morocco or Ivory Coast targeting victims in Wallonia or Brussels, or Surinamese criminals targeting Flemish victims. AI has changed that. Today, a 38-year-old man can video chat live and, with the right AI tools, appear to be the same age as the victim because the difference is barely noticeable. Tricks like asking someone to raise a hand on webcam no longer expose the deception.’ 

Shared responsibility

Discussing these situations isn’t always easy, but Van Paemel suggests already starting in primary school. ‘Conservative voices often argue that children shouldn’t be sexualised at that age. But when a nude photo circulates in the classroom, you want children to be able to say ‘no, this isn’t okay’. And there are plenty of ways to address the topic in class without making it scary.’

Dings: ‘It’s interesting for parents to teach their children basic rules or good habits that aren’t necessarily about sexuality or grooming. You’re building awareness which will be useful even for topics they’re not yet dealing with.’

Monitoring or blocking everything isn’t always the right thing to do. Van Paemel: ‘Parents who use parental controls are often actively engaged with what their children are doing. But there are also cases where a child has been raised on an iPad from the age of six. This generation of parents knows the technology, but that doesn’t mean they’re showing their children how to use it properly.’

Talking about it is key. Dings: ‘A well-known cyberawareness quote is that when your child comes home from school or a hobby, you ask how it went. But when your child disappears into their room with an iPad or phone for a couple of hours, that question is rarely asked. The reflex often is not there.’

Van Paemel: ‘Tell your child not to chat with people they don’t know. It’s fine to talk or chat in a video game, but don’t share personal information. And if a child has gone too far, they need to know they can turn to their parents or school. When children know they can talk about these things it already provides a strong foundation.’ 

You can lay down rules, talk about what’s shared online or how to spot (attempted) scams and blackmail. But these situations evolve and there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to keeping children safe online. What we can do is build their resilience, not just through rules or tech tools, but by talking openly about these things, by listening and telling them they can talk to parents, teachers or trusted adults. 

Online safety isn’t achieved by attending a workshop or reading this article (sorry!). It’s a process and a shared responsibility between parents, educators, schools, policymakers and children themselves. By informing, supporting and staying alert, we can create an environment where children are resilient enough to recognise unsafe situations and are not afraid to speak up when something goes wrong.

To improve their online safety, young people can do a lot themselves: use varied, strong passwords and two-step verification, avoid sharing sensitive information, install antivirus software, report suspicious messages, etc. However, a relatively large group of surveyed young people (16%) say they don’t use any of these strategies. 

The Apenstaartjaren survey also found that around half of all young people aren’t particularly concerned about their own online safety. A quarter worry (to some extent) about personal information being shared, their phone becoming unusable or losing money online.

The growing threat of cybercrime, combined with the limited concern among young people themselves, makes it clear that online safety isn’t just a parental responsibility, it’s a shared responsibility of the whole of society. 

What is DNS Belgium doing to protect young people?

Keeping the internet safe in Belgium is one of DNS Belgium’s core missions. 

• We maintain a robust internet infrastructure and domain name management.
• We keep the .be domain zone safe by continuously implementing innovative security measures.
• We combat online child abuse by working with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) and Child Focus.
• We promote awareness and education through tools like the Edubox Cybersecurity and the Edubox Privacy in collaboration with VRT and RTBF. In Flanders, Edubox has already reached 700,000 young people.
• We share our expertise on cyberawareness with children and young people. For example, we provide input to Friendzone, an educational package of Technopolis on sexting, privacy and cybersecurity and to Cyberkrak, an escape game about cybersecurity of Mediawijs.
• We support actions and campaigns on online safety among young people such as Link in de Cable and Wat Wat.
• Every year we create puzzles for the Cybersecurity Challenge.
• We provide financial and content-related support to Apenstaartjaren by reviewing the questions on online safety. In the coming year, the anniversary edition (20th anniversary  of apenstaartjaren and the 10th survey), we're actively involved in the survey project group and have provided input on other aspects of the survey.
• Together with VRT, we recently co-produced Red Flag, an online miniseries, which explores current themes in digital safety.
• We also launched the #safenotsorry campaign on Instagram and TikTok, using influencers to raise awareness among young people about the importance of two-step verification. 

Through these initiatives and collaborations, DNS Belgium contributes to creating a safer online environment for young people and helps them to understand the risks and take steps to protect themselves.

In next week’s article, we’ll explore how cybercriminals are using AI and machine learning to deceive people and what we can do to defend ourselves.