Online sexual harassment is any unwanted sexual behaviour online. It can make a person feel threatened, exploited, coerced, humiliated, upset, sexualised or discriminated against.
When cyberbullying is of a sexual nature, we call it online sexual harassment (OSH). Unfortunately, many young people are witnessing or experiencing this type of behaviour and aren’t getting the support they need.
This advice is for online sexual harassment that happens between children and young people who know each other, or know of each other, online. For advice about adults sexually harassing children online, read our advice page on online grooming.
Unwanted sexual behaviour online can:
• Happen anywhere online (social media, games, messaging apps, public or private)
• Use images, videos, posts, messages, pages, memes, emojis
• Happen publicly, privately, or in both ways at the same time
• Include a variety of different behaviours, possibly happening at the same time
• Overlap with offline experiences of sexual harassment
• Overlap with other forms of discrimination
