In the last twenty years online child sexual abuse has exploded. In this documentary we talk to a survivor and to the people who are trying to make the Internet a safer place for children and for all of us.
Rhiannon was 13 when a stranger started talking to her online. This was the year 2000 and the birth of the internet and exciting new ways to connect to people all around the world. She thought she was just making a new online friend. Within hours this person had topless photos of her, knew where she lived and went to school. Less than 24 hours later, that person was in her bedroom sexually abusing her and photographing the whole ordeal.
Child sexual abuse is nothing new in society. But the internet has brought it to a whole new level and the amount of people who want to watch children being abused online has sky-rocketed.
Detective Sergeant Mike Smith works in the Online Child Exploitation Unit in An Garda SÃochana. He spends much of his working day viewing some of the most disturbing material of children being tortured and raped to try and track down perpetrators in Ireland. The process of grooming a child used to take a long period of time. Now it happens within a few lines of dialogue.
The problem with images that are put up on the internet is that even if the perpetrator is caught, the images can stay online or on hard drives around the world, ready to be uploaded again and again. That’s where the Internet Watch Foundation comes in. Irish man Henry (not his real name) works in the Internet Watch Foundation. His job is to take down images and videos of child abuse that appear on the internet. He knows that they are swimming against the tide but every image that is taken down is a fight back against those who want to view or profit from child abuse material.
To do these jobs Henry, Mike and others like them have to view this material every day.  It is graphic and extreme material. If they are not careful, this kind of work can really take its toll.
This is a look into some of the darkest corners of the Internet and how the stranger that could harm your child isn’t necessarily on the street anymore – he could be in their bedroom.
Narrated by Sinead Kennedy. Produced by Sinead Kennedy and Nicoline Greer.