Online Safety Digital Conference:

Susie Hargreaves joined the IWF in 2011 as CEO. She is a member of the National Crime Agency (NCA CEOP) Strategic Governance Group and an Executive Board Member of the UK Council for Internet Safety (UKCIS). She is also a Member of Crown Prosecution Service Child Sexual Abuse Stakeholder Forum and a member of the External Reference Group for HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMRICFS) Online CSAE inspection.

Outside the UK, Susie is a Member of the World Economic Forum Global Coalition for Digital Safety, the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT), the International Justice Mission (IJM) Advisory Board and member of the ‘Together to #ENDviolence: Leaders’ Group’. In 2016, Susie was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for Services to Child Online Protection.

Sir Jeremy Wright was a barrister specialising in criminal law before being elected to the UK Parliament for the first time in 2005. He was a member of the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee (later the Justice Select Committee) until his appointment as an Opposition Whip in 2007. He also founded and chaired the All Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia.

He served as a Whip in the Coalition Government from 2010 until his appointment as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Prisons and Rehabilitation in 2012, then as Attorney General in that Government and the Conservative Governments of David Cameron and Theresa May. He was made Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in 2018, overseeing the Government’s White Paper on Online Harms before leaving Government with the arrival of the new Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

He currently chairs the All Party Group on Digital Regulation and Responsibility and is a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament and a former member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life.

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.

He is a Director of the UK Safer Internet Centre, in which Childnet is a partner alongside two other charities, the Internet Watch Foundation and the South West Grid for Learning, and in this role Childnet organises Safer Internet Day in the UK every year. He is also an Executive Board member of the UK Council for Internet Safety and founded and chairs the Early Warning Working Group of helplines, hotlines and law enforcement. Will also sits on Meta’s Safety Advisory Board and the Advisory Group for the AntiBullying Alliance.

In his time at Childnet Will has led national and international projects, and has led the development of Childnet’s range of award-winning internet safety programmes and resources aimed at children of all ages, parents and carers, and teachers and schools.

Will was awarded an OBE in the 2018 Queen’s New Year’s Honours List for his work in the field of children’s online safety.

Jacqueline Beauchere is the Global Head of Platform Safety at Snap Inc. She represents the technology industry on the WeProtect Global Alliance’s international Policy Board, serves as Snap’s representative on both INHOPE’s Advisory Board and the Funding Council of the Internet Watch Foundation, and is a member of Power of Zero’s Steering Committee. Prior to Snap, she spent nearly 22 years at Microsoft, serving as that company’s and industry’s first Chief Online Safety Officer.

In 2021, Beauchere was named a Member of the British Empire for her work in combating illegal and harmful content online, including child sexual abuse imagery.

Emma joined the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) in April 2011. She is their Communications Director with 20 years’ experience and leads IWF’s media relations work, marketing and digital communications and campaigns.

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, Emma shares responsibility for setting strategy, reputation management, and leads on the communications element of crisis handling. Emma led the creation of an award-winning campaign to build resilience among vulnerable groups to sexual abusers online, and won the support of the UK Government, law enforcement, tech industry and the third sector. The campaign was subsequently adopted in other global territories.

Emma is a member of the National Crime Agency (NCA) Protect and Prepare Board and is a Governor at a primary school in Cambridgeshire.

David is CEO at SWGfL and also Director of the UK Safer Internet Centre; the national awareness centre and part of the European Insafe network. David has worked extensively in online safety for 20 years with children, schools and wider agencies. He advises a number of Governments, organisations and industry partners on online safety strategy and policy and has been appointed as an expert child online protection adviser to the UN ITU.

David has presented at conferences nationally and internationally. He is a member of UK Council for Internet Safety and has recently been invited to be a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Coalition for Digital Safety.

David has led the creation of a number of Helplines that directly and indirectly support victims of online harm, most notably the Revenge Porn Helpline in 2015 that supports adults who are victims of non consensual intimate image (NCII) abuse. Consequentially, David has overseen the development of StopNCII, the worlds first device side hashing technology that empowers adults who experience NCII to prevent their images being shared online.

Sarah spent 16 years in the civil service working in a number of key roles to tackle serious organised crime and protect children including the Deputy Director for the Online Child Sexual Abuse Threat (CEOP) at the National Crime Agency and the co-chair of the Virtual Global Taskforce.  Sarah moved over to Ofcom in January to head up CSA Policy and law enforcement engagement as part of Ofcom’s new responsibilities under the Online Safety bill and lead the development of CSA measures for the draft Illegal Harms codes of practice which are due to be published post Royal Assent in Autumn.

The Lucy Faithfull Foundation is a child protection charity dedicated to preventing child sexual abuse before it happens. As CEO, Deborah is focused on advancing the Foundation’s vision of a world free from sexual abuse and exploitation. Deborah plays a key role in advocating for a greater focus on preventing abuse before it occurs and sits on a variety of groups and boards including the National Crime Agency’s Prevent and Protect and Prepare Boards, and IICSA Changemakers. After leading the Foundation’s communications and fundraising functions for a number of years, she took over as CEO in February 2020. Deborah has 20 years’ experience in media, communications and fundraising and since becoming CEO has successfully grown and expanded the Foundation, as well as support for many of its projects and services.

I have worked for 14 years at Billing Brook school. It is a SEND school with 256 on role ages 4-18.

Working in SEND has meant that as a school we have really had to consider how we support students and families accessing the online world. With so many pulls to interact online; being able to be someone else, not being judged, finding a way to communicate with others, it’s easy to see why our students enjoy being online. The figures since the pandemic have shown how children and young adults have increased their social media and online use in ways we couldn’t predict. With all this in mind, Billing brook school has been able to create an online safety curriculum which is relatable and real; using platforms which mimic the online space, as well as being able to create podcasts and use social media to connect with our school community. We are the only school in Northamptonshire who holds the 360 safe mark, which was reaccredited in January after first achieving in 2019. We work closely with agencies such as TARGET, CIRV, police and council advisors to ensure that we have the most up to date information being shared. We link with companies such as National online safety and Natterhub to provide training and curriculum. Alongside this we work with other SEND schools in the county to generate an online safety network, where colleagues receive CEOP training as well as a chance to problem solve as a group. The online world needs to be seen as a space just as meeting at a cafe or restaurant is – it cannot be taught about or spoken about in a way that suggests it isn’t real life, and this is something that we do at Billing Brook; bringing it into lessons across the curriculum, providing transferable resources and opening up conversations.

Vanessa joined Surrey Police as an officer in 2004.
With ten years’ experience safeguarding vulnerable adults and young people, Vanessa joined the Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT), a specialist department of dedicated officers that investigate paedophiles and online offending.
Realising that a less direct tactical policing approach was required with children sharing online imagery, the role of Online Prevent Officer was created.
Two years on, Vanessa works to provide awareness and understanding of internet safety to those charged with looking after young people. This includes an outreach approach to communities within Surrey, so young people can have positive experiences online, to recognise when they are not, and to empower them to seek help when problems occur.

I have over 13 years’ experience of working in a range of roles within school settings and have taught within both the mainstream and special needs sectors. I am currently leading on Social and Emotional Well-being at my school, overseeing provision within RSHE, Protective Behaviours, Zones of Regulation and Online Safety across the 4-19 age range of our students who have a diverse range of Special Educational Needs. My passion lies within supporting children and young people to express their emotions, manage their feelings and develop their regulation skills so that they feel safe and secure and are enabled to reach their potential.

Dr Simon P Hammond is a Lecturer in Education in the School of Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of East Anglia and Honorary Assistant Professor at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. Dr Hammond’s research examines how digital technologies reshape everyday social possibilities for action and the implications of our increasingly connected world for our mental health. His work explores how young people, particularly those labelled as vulnerable, experience digital inclusion, resilience, participation, and equality. He is a member of Ofcom’s Research Working Group, UKCIS Vulnerable Users and Digital Resilience Working Groups.

Alex has been worked with Childline and the NSPCC for over 20 years, having joined as a volunteer counsellor at 16 years old before becoming a staff member a few years later. He has been in various roles including direct work counselling and safeguarding, project management and development, and service management, and is now in the Senior Management Team at Childline as a Service Head overseeing Volunteering and the participation of young people across the NSPCC.

He is a qualified and registered Social Worker, with experience working in an NSPCC Service Centre, within a local authority and for the NHS, including working in Forensic Mental Health, working with young people at risk of Sexual Exploitation, and assessing alleged offenders. He has worked as a consultant and a trainer for external organisations, including internationally, and is the NSPCC representative to Child Helpline International. With an MA in Politics and an MSc in Social Work he has a passion for upholding the rights of young people, social justice and supporting those with mental health issues, topics which he regularly speaks about in the media and at events as an NSPCC Spokesperson.