The dark web and my daughter’s secret

A girl in her late teens sits down next to her mother. I sense all is not well. ‘Mum, I need to tell you something.’

My heart lurches with a familiar parental dread. I’ve been here before with her. More than once. What can it be now? Can it be worse than what’s come before?

Yes. It can and it has. It may not surprise you to know it involves the Internet. The dark recesses of the Internet – commonly known as ‘the dark web’. Where porn is available and, distressingly, could evade the parental app we have relied on for years (parents, be warned – accountability apps can be hacked and our children tend to be more tech savvy that their parents).