What are 'depression rooms' on Roblox?
{trigger warning uses of the words depression, self-harm and suicide} Roblox is a popular gaming platform founded in 2006 that allows...
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"The Breck Foundation sessions were our highest scoring sessions, both for overall marks and in terms of giving people actionable advice"
- A global financial services
Breck Foundation corporate partner
“I learned from the Breck Foundation what the word grooming meant and what impact it can have on people who are affected by it.”
- Kai, age 11.
“I learned all the signs of grooming and I think it was very helpful as I can tell my friends outside of school about it and feel safer. It was scary but I know how to be aware of it now.”
Year 6 pupil.
By donating £5 a month you can protect a whole class of primary school children with online safety lessons
Online grooming
In today’s society, it is often difficult for young people to recognise the difference between the online world and the real world. We teach an ethos of play virtual/live real, encouraging young people to recognise that the friends they make online are not like their real-life friends.
It isn’t always easy to recognise the early signs of grooming as it might appear that the young person has just made a new friend or started a new relationship. However, the nature of the relationship will soon start to change as the groomer exerts more control and manipulation over the target.
Grooming techniques are used for a variety of reasons, such as gang recruitment or County Lines and the motives are not always sexual. We work hard to break the stereotypes around grooming: it is not always younger girls and older men; boys can be groomed too, and a perpetrator can be any age or gender.
Where can online grooming happen?
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video gaming sites
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private gaming servers
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social media platforms
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websites with instant messenger or photo sharing
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chat rooms (like Omegle)
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dating apps
What are the signs of grooming?
Grooming is often thought of as a sexually motivated crime, but in fact there are many outcomes of grooming including radicalisation, county lines/gang activity, cybercrime and more. It’s a grim list, but the one good thing is that no matter what the intended outcome, the signs of grooming are pretty much the same (though some may be more prevalent than others).
Think someone you know is in danger?
We are an educational and preventative charity, please see this page for signposts to all the different organisations that can give you immediate support or advice.
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