Recorded on August 5th, 2025
Join us for a powerful conversation with Will Gardner, CEO of Childnet, as we dive into the online risks facing young people today — including financial sextortion, scams, and the importance of youth voice in creating safer digital spaces.
Key Highlights
- The Hidden Threats Kids Face Online: Learn how children as young as eight are repeatedly targeted by increasingly sophisticated scams, manipulation, and sextortion—amplified by powerful new AI tools—and why many families don’t even realize the risks their kids encounter daily.
- Breaking the Silence on Online Safety: Discover proven ways parents and caregivers can open positive, judgment-free conversations with their kids about the digital world—starting with what children love about technology and building trust to tackle tough topics like scams and sextortion together.
- Youth as Champions for Safer Internet: Hear why empowering young people to share their voices and take an active role in online safety is a game changer—featuring inspiring stories from Childnet’s youth initiatives that are shaping safer online spaces worldwide.
- What To Do If Sextortion Happens: Get vital, practical steps to protect your child if they’re targeted by online extortion—how to stop communication, gather evidence, report abuse, and use tools such as “Take It Down” to remove harmful content—plus the crucial message that victims are never to blame.
About the Guest
Will Gardner is the CEO of Childnet International, a children’s charity working with others to help make the internet a great and safe place for children.
Will has worked at Childnet since 2000 and has been the CEO since 2009 and has led numerous regional, national and international projects and programmes promoting child online safety, developing many award-winning resources.
He is also a Director of the UK Safer Internet Centre, in which Childnet, working with partners the IWF and SWGfL, organizes Safer Internet Day in the UK every year, a campaign that reaches over 50% of children and a half of parents and carers.
Helpful Links
- Visit Childnet International for online safety resources for children and young people.
- Learn more about Safer Internet Day, celebrated around the world in February each year with Safer Internet Centre.
- If you are scammed in the UK, report it to Action Fraud, the UK’s national fraud and cyber crime reporting center.
Ready to Enhance Your Scam Awareness?
Try our Trend Micro ScamCheck tool to spot suspicious links and guard against online threats – because even the savviest among us can use an extra layer of defense.
At Trend, everything we do is about making the world a safer place for exchanging digital information. Thanks for joining us, and stay safe online!
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