“These sick people are just able to go online and hide behind a mask of
anonymity while they abuse vulnerable teenagers,” Dave Smith told the Daily Mirror.
 

         Hannah Smith, Dave’s 14-year-old daughter, died in August 2013 after experiencing
online bullying. She received numerous cruel comments, including messages telling her
to “drink bleach,” “go die,” and “nobody cares.” The abuse included both direct insults
and suggestions that she harm herself. Some messages even encouraged her to
commit suicide.
 

         Hannah’s story is not unique. There’s also Jessica Laney, a sweet 16-year-old from
Florida, whose friends remember her for her kindness and love of music. Jessica also
faced a flood of hurtful, anonymous messages online, including the chilling question:
“Can you kill yourself already?” Both girls’ stories remind us that behind every headline
about online abuse, there are real, hurting families.
 

         The technology of abuse keeps evolving. In late 2023, students at a school in Westfield,
New Jersey, were shocked when some boys used artificial intelligence to create fake,
explicit images of their female classmates. One girl confided, “I felt violated even though
I hadn’t done anything wrong—suddenly, my face was everywhere.” This kind of abuse
isn’t just happening in one place. In South Korea, a massive deepfake scandal in 2024-
2025 saw thousands of AI-generated images of young girls and teachers spread across
the internet, leaving many feeling exposed and powerless.
 

         As technology has evolved, online abuse has also become more organized and
coercive.
 

         In 2025, the UK’s National Crime Agency uncovered about 200 cases involving violent
online “com” gangs—groups of mostly teenage boys using mainstream social media
and gaming platforms to manipulate, blackmail, and coerce young girls into self-harm
and abuse.
 

         One of the most notorious of these groups known as “764,” shocked investigators with
the scale of its cruelty. Detective Constable Gemma, who led the investigation into a 16-
year-old boy linked to 764, described it as the most severe case she had encountered:
“We were looking at GBH-style injuries to children. The harm they were causing
themselves was shocking,” she told the BBC. The boy, whose offenses began at age
14, was found to have targeted at least 50 to 100 children, hacking accounts and
demanding disturbing acts in exchange for their return. What’s most alarming is how
these crimes happen on everyday platforms where children expect safety but instead
find themselves groomed and trapped by strangers hiding behind screens. The scale of
this abuse has led to international warnings, including from the FBI, about 764’s use of

threats, blackmail, and manipulation to force girls into recording or live-streaming self-
harm and other trauma.
 

         These cases, despite occurring in different years and contexts, reflect a much bigger
pattern. A Pew Research Center study from 2022 found that nearly half of U.S. teens
reported being bullied or harassed online, with girls—especially older teen girls—more
likely to say they were targeted, often because of their appearance. A recent news
article published on 18, May, 2026 by European Institute for gender Equality stated that:
“More than one in ten women (12.3%) experiences online abuse, including threats,
stalking, harassment, and image-based abuse, according to EU gender-based violence
survey.
 

         This shows that girls and young women are more likely to face particular forms of
gendered online abuse, including sexual harassment, image-based abuse, coercion and
deepfake exploitation. Addressing these harms should not mean restricting girls'
participation in digital spaces. Instead, responsibility should fall on perpetrators,
platforms, educators, and institutions.
 

         Some people might wonder if the answer to these dangers is simply to keep girls off
their phones or tell them to avoid social media altogether. Should we discourage girls
from connecting with their friends online just because predators are lurking in digital
spaces? This approach not only places the responsibility on girls to protect themselves,
but also unfairly limits their freedom and right to participate in modern social life.
Regardless of these dangers, girls's online freedom is often watched more closely.
Parents worry about their daughters' safety, monitor their accounts, and warn them
about predators. While parents are right to warn their daughters about predators, it is
wrong for them to have double standards. In some cases, boys are given greater
freedom online under the assumption that they are less vulnerable. They’re expected to
be bold, assertive, and even reckless. When that freedom crosses into harassment,
adults excuse it as a phase, something they’ll grow out of. That narrative itself is
dangerous. It teaches boys that their actions don’t matter, and it teaches girls that their
discomfort is secondary to boys’ freedom.
 

         The answer isn’t to take phones away or deny access to digital spaces. Technology can
be a powerful tool for creativity, learning, and connection. The challenge is to rewrite the
definition of freedom – not as the ability to do whatever one wants, but as the
responsibility to act with respect. This means changing cultural attitudes, improving
digital literacy for all genders, and ensuring that tech companies and authorities take
real action to protect vulnerable users and address harmful behavior at its source.

When we talk about online abuse, it’s important to remember it isn’t just about numbers
or statistics. It’s about real girls—daughters, sisters, and friends—who deserve to feel
safe online.