My son, 8, watched violent porn with his ‘addicted’ school pal at a sleepover – he’d wake screaming from the nightmares

MUM Meg Jones’ blood ran cold as her distressed son Dylan, eight, confided in her his biggest secret – on a recent sleepover he’d watched hours of violent, graphic porn with his best friend.  

Harrowingly, from a play den in the family living room while Meg slept, they also visited a chat room where a man exposed himself and asked them to do the same. 

Until then Meg, 46, had been baffled why Dylan was suddenly suffering night terrors, waking up screaming and crying in the middle of the night.

And now she’d been plunged into her very own nightmare. 

Alarmingly, this isn’t a rare, one-off incident – a report by the Children’s Commissioner for England Rachel de Souza found one in ten children have viewed pornography by the age of nine. 

Just last month the Met Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Vicki Evans also warned children as young as ten were regularly accessing ‘a pick and mix of horrific content’ online.

However, as our investigation uncovers, there’s an even darker reality – with children as young as eight being exposed to pornography and groomed online by predatory men.

‘He’d wake up screaming & crying’

Meg, who lives near Ipswich with her husband Dan, 41, and their three children, Dylan, now 11, and his siblings, ten and six, still cries years on when she recounts their horrifying experience. 

Speaking exclusively to Fabulous, she says: “One night Dylan woke up screaming from a nightmare, saying he dreamt about someone pooing on him. 

“I reassured him it was a bad dream and didn’t think too much about it. 

“But a week later he said ‘I have to tell you something, but you can’t tell anybody’. 

“He told me at the sleepover his friend had showed him some horrible stuff on the internet – extreme and violent pornography.

“It was horrific and I was devastated, but that was just the beginning. 

“He had constant nightmares and developed extremely sexualised intrusive thoughts which led to panic attacks. 

“We went to see Santa a few months later. We were in the queue and Dylan looked distressed.

“I asked what was wrong and he said, ‘I’ve just had a bad thought, about Santa having sex. 

“It happened to him everywhere, from restaurants, to playing football and in school. There was no let up for 18 months.”

Meg told the other mum what had happened but says she refused to believe it. While Dylan has a basic phone now, he has strict parental controls in place and if he has a sleepover, phones and tablets are forbidden.

“We got him therapy but it’s been a long road to recovery,” Meg adds.

‘It traumatised them’

According to an Ofcom study, every single British child interviewed had watched violent material on the internet, from videos of street fights to explicit, extreme graphic violence.

But even with parental controls to monitor online activity, children are still subjected to potentially harmful content through their peers who can still access it. 

Meg says: “After that initial incident we made sure Dylan didn’t see any more porn himself, but he was constantly told things by other children who were still watching it. 

“At least two other children at his school, aged eight and nine, would demonstrate how to do oral sex among other even more graphic things – it was endless. 

“And it wasn’t just pornography. One time I was at a picnic and some of the other boys were crowded round a phone, watching a beheading video. It traumatised them. 

We have to face up to reality – our children are looking at the very worst things online at extremely young ages and it’s so hard to protect them.

Meg

“Then, when Dylan was ten he came home and told me that he’d been taught how to have sex with any woman you wanted – you got them drunk and then just did it. 

“When he told me that, there were four other boys there. 

“I was so disturbed I called their parents – and not one of the other kids had told their parents. I feel lucky because at least Dylan tells me these things. 

“I’ve lost count of the number of them who have told me ‘my son wouldn’t say or do things like that’ and yet I know they do. 

“We have to face up to reality – our children are looking at the very worst things online at extremely young ages and it’s so hard to protect them.

“You do what you can, putting blocks on apps and filters on your home internet and not allowing devices at sleepovers. 

“But if every other parent doesn’t do the same, your children will at the very least hear about things at a very young age.”

‘I’ve heard horrendous stories’ 

The prevalent use of smart phones and tablets means inappropriate content is easily accessible.

A quarter of five to seven year olds have smart phones, 76 per cent have tablets, and worryingly 60 per cent of children have seen harmful content despite parental controls on devices. 

It’s this dangerous content as well as concerns about phone addiction that prompted Daisy Greenwell to start her campaign – Smartphone Free Childhood – last year. 

Now they’ve got 200,000 parents on board.

Daisy explains: “I’ve heard horrendous stories about what children are seeing online.

“Once they’ve seen it they can’t unsee it and it can have devastating consequences. 

“It used to be that friends and family were the main influence on how your child views the world and the way they should behave. 

“But now children are seeing the whole world on a device that is with them all the time.

“They aren’t old enough to understand much of what they see and can’t contextualise it.

“This has huge implications for kids, families and societies as a whole.”

When it comes to online content, Rani Govender, Regulatory Policy Manager at the NSPCC, believes tech companies need to step up and take responsibility. 

She says: “The online world allows children to communicate with friends and family, helping with their learning and enabling them to explore and have fun.  

“However, with all opportunities also come unacceptable risks, most notably through online grooming and the spread of dangerous and harmful material.

“Tech companies must take responsibility for keeping children and young people safe when online. 

“Platforms should be safe by design for young users, with serious or repeated failure to protect children being met with a swift and decisive response by Ofcom.”

Additionally, one in six children have also had a bad experience with online chat rooms and social networking sites, according to Internet Matters. 

Not only did Meg’s son and friend watch graphic content, but they also visited a chat room where a man exposed himself.

The mum, who helps run her husband’s property business, says:

“They were on a site called Omegle – which has now closed – where you’re randomly matched with people to chat to.

“You can move on to the next person at any time. Dylan told me there were quite a few older men and a few people made them laugh. But this one man asked them to show him their genitals and bottoms.

“Dylan said his friend complied but he didn’t.

Meg reported the incident to the police but they weren’t able to identify who was responsible.

She recalls: “His IP address was in India, so their hands were tied.

“What I can do is tell our story to warn other parents.

“I’ve even contemplated home schooling my children to try to keep them safe –  but I know can’t hide them away in a bubble.”

‘He exposed himself & sent explicit videos’

Statistics show there’s been a huge surge in online grooming of children. In the past five years there’s been a rise of 82 per cent, according to the NSPCC.

Horrifyingly, one in four involved primary school children – age 11 or younger. 

It’s a fact that Sarah Smith*, 39, is also painfully aware of. 

Her daughter Nikki is now 13, and was groomed in 2020 when she was just eight, through an app called MovieStarPlanet, aimed at seven to 14 year olds.  

Sarah, who lives just outside London and works in a school, explains: “We got her a tablet and she asked permission to download the app. 

“It seemed fine, so I allowed her to have it but within hours she came down and said a man was saying things she wasn’t comfortable with. 

“He was saying ‘you’re really sexy and I fancy you’. I thought it was probably a teenager being silly, so we deleted her account and then later we made a new one. 

“Sickeningly the same person found her again, asking her to go on to Snapchat.

“He was targeting her despite her profile being clear she was just eight. It was horrifying and I knew I had to take it seriously.

“I made a Snapchat account and pretended to be Nikki. I wanted to protect my daughter, and other children he might be targeting. 

“He exposed himself and sent explicit videos and encouraged her to do the same.

“I felt sickened but I wanted to gather evidence, so I took photos.”

Justice at last 

Three days later, Sarah went to the police. 

She says: “Through social media I found out he was 36 and married, from Sunderland.

“I also reported his account on the app, but never heard back, which I found shocking.”

Three years on, the man who targeted Nikki was found guilty of attempted sexual misconduct with a minor and actual sexual misconduct. He was sentenced to eight months in prison at Newcastle Crown Court and made to serve the full sentence.

Sarah explains: “It was his second offence as he’d upskirted a 12-year-old before but due to legal reasons he can’t be identified.”

‘She knows she can tell me anything’ 

While the sentencing was a victory, the impact was devastating.

Sarah adds: “Nikki really suffered and her innocence was stolen.

“Because the police were involved she was convinced she’d done something wrong and needed therapy for over two years. 

“Meanwhile the stress put a strain on my marriage and my hair started falling out. 

“It’s been a terrible time, but it showed me how careful we all have to be. 

“Thankfully now, we’re closer than ever, and Nikki’s come through it – she knows she can tell me anything and we’ll work through it together.”

For advice and tips visit the NSPCC’s Online Safety Hub.

• Some names have been changed.