Parents need to open thier eyes

This is a very sad case indeed. This girl has been let down by her parents and the agencies involved.

There does need to be a way to protect vulnerable children from this sort of abuse however, and the government and the IT systems providers need to be looking at what measures can be put into place.

There's no excuse. There are parenting controls on WIFI and phones. You should be monitoring what your child is doing on the internet. You should also talk to your child about safety and red flags.

The thing is parents are too scared to be firm because they want their child to like them. They have to remember they are their child’s parent not friend.

Before any child gets a phone they should be sat down and talked to about the dangers of the internet and sending messages and photos etc. The NSPCC and plenty of other online places have endless videos for kids to watch to educate them on all the subjects.

Strict rules should also be in place about no phones in bedrooms and parental restrictions are a must. Children should know that having a phone (especially a smart one) is a privilege and not a right and as a parent you are allowed to change access to it whenever.

Parents do need to be much more aware of risks online and how quickly things can spiral out of control. Monitoring phone use won’t necessarily prevent kids from being put at risk but it will catch things early. I’m not entirely sure what the mum wants social work to do, if she continues to allow her child access to a phone and hasn’t locked it down it’s going to keep happening - once that door is open it’s very hard to close again.

Theres work to be done with the young person around the impact on her and safe internet use but without pretty strong parenting and very clear boundaries enforced by the parents it’s going to be hard to stop.