Talking Forward – supporting families affected by online child sexual abuse offending

The Challenge

We are facing a global epidemic of online child sexual abuse and exploitation. The Internet Watch Foundation (2024) reported 291,273 confirmed reports containing child sexual abuse imagery in 2024 - a confirmed report every 108 seconds! Kewley and Karsna’s (2025) report for the Centre for Expertise in Child Sexual Abuse reported 39,640 child sexual abuse material (CSAM) offences recorded by the police in England and Wales in 2023/24. Research by Professor Rachel Armitage estimates that of the approximately 1000 arrests for this offence in England and Wales every month, around 35% of those take place at a home where children are present – leaving 10 families (with children) a day vulnerable to the traumatic harms of experiencing the police warrant (often referred to as ‘the knock’) and the ripple effects, or aftershocks that take place going forward.

The families – partners, ex-partners, siblings, parents and children of those under investigation / convicted are not classed as victims. They are not entitled to the rights associated with victim status, including access to therapeutic services, information and communication relating to the case, anonymity in media reporting and trauma informed responses. Due to the high proportion of these online offences resulting in a non-custodial sentence (approximately 97%), families are not able to access support services aimed at families of prisoners – leaving these families with little of no information, therapeutic response, or communication and information.

Our approach

In 2020, Professor Armitage began researching this area. Her research, funded by the Lucy Faithfull Foundation resulted in several practice-based reports as well as academic publications. These are open access and can be found here:

• New Faithfull Paper evaluates the impact of the Family and Friends Forum
• “We’re Not Allowed to Go through the Grieving Process” - Exploring the Indirect Harms Associated with Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) Offending and Its Impacts on non-offending Family Members
• “Grieving someone who’s still alive, that’s hard”: the experiencesof non-offending partners of individuals who have sexuallyoffended – an IPA study

The findings confirmed that family members experienced psychological, social, financial and physical impacts following ‘the knock’ and that these impacted every aspect of their lives. Recognising these impacts, and the gaps in support, Professor Armitage and colleagues made a decision to set up their own charity – focused entirely on supporting these family members through a peer support model. The charity, Talking Forward, established in 2023, runs four national groups per month, is free of charge and users can access the service for as long as they need that support. Rachel is Chair of Trustees and a hands-on volunteer at the charity.

As well as establishing the charity, Rachel has also worked closely with key agencies to make changes to policing, social services and educational responses to these families. These include the creation of a new police role – Indirect Victim Support Officer in both Lincolnshire and Hampshire; piloting the extension of Operation Encompass to include families affected by online child sexual abuse and informing the creation of social worker guidance on working with these families.

Our impact

In 2024/25 Talking Forward had 165 referrals, made 104 individual calls, ran 48 groups and 3 specialist workshops with 349 attendees accessing support. Those attending sessions spoke of the benefits in terms of emotional support, feeling less isolated, connections with peers, access to a non-judgemental space, access to reliable information, signposting to appropriate services and validation. Rachel secured funding for an embedded PhD student to evaluate the impact of this model on families, as well as identifying further therapeutic needs following the trauma.

Securing funding earmarked for direct victims from the West Yorkshire Mayor’s Office Safer Communities Fund, Professor Armitage spoke of the validation this gave to the forgotten families. At the Safer Communities Fund launch, Rachel read out a quote from a family member accessing Talking Forward which highlighted the invaluable support.