IWF’s behaviour change campaign recognised with two major sector awards

Young people navigate a digital world where sharing content and talking to strangers online can feel normal. But those everyday online behaviours can carry serious risks, contributing to a continued rise in child sexual abuse material online.

To tackle this issue, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) partnered with the creative agency Consider to develop a bold behaviour change campaign that would cut through the noise, spark conversations and encourage safer online choices among teenagers, parents, carers and educators. Importantly, we didn’t start with assumptions. Young people from partner schools helped shape the creative approach from the outset, ensuring it resonated with the audiences we most wanted to reach.

The result was ‘Think Before You Share’, a campaign built around a deliberately provocative creative idea. It used images of ordinary fruit – fruit chosen to resemble the exact body parts that you’d imagine – that allowed us to push right to the edge of what's shareable online. Combining humour, surprise and a simple but powerful message, the campaign encouraged young people to pause and think before sending intimate images.

The campaign has run for two successful iterations with exceptional results, generating over 122 million impressions, 350,000 clicks and an impressive 94% YouTube view-through rate, more than three times the industry benchmark.

‘Think Before You Share’ was named Communications Campaign of the Year at the 2026 Third Sector Awards, which celebrate organisations delivering meaningful social impact and driving positive change across society.

The campaign also won Gold for Behaviour Change Campaign of the Year at the 2026 Global Good Awards, which reward businesses, NGOs, charities and social enterprises of all shapes and sizes around the world, that deliver measurable, real-world impact through purpose-driven communications.

While the awards are a proud moment, what matters most is the difference the campaign has made and its measurable impact for teenagers across the UK.

During the period the campaign was active, the number of reports made by young people to Report Remove, a self-reporting tool run by the IWF and NSPCC Childline that helps young people remove nude images shared online, increased by 77% compared with the same period the previous year.*

In addition, actioned reports increased by 93% during that timeframe, highlighting a significant rise in young people accessing support when they needed it most.** Directing young people to Report Remove was the primary call to action, making these results especially encouraging.

The campaign success is deeply rooted in research and evidence drawn from an independent academic evaluation. The International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute at Anglia Ruskin examined how young people’s attitudes and behaviours changed throughout the campaign, providing further evidence of its effectiveness.

To reach teenagers, campaign assets were designed for the platforms young people use every day, combining animation, short-form video and creator-style content that felt native to their apps.

Meanwhile, parents, carers and educators saw the content in their feeds, and through radio and podcast advertising voiced by actor Diane Morgan, designed to surprise, inform and drive vital conversations at home. The second phase of the campaign also attracted support from actor Natalie Dormer, who created content to help raise awareness and encourage meaningful conversations between parents and young people.

These awards recognise not only creative excellence, but the power of evidence-led communications to change behaviours and help keep young people safer online.

Find out more about the ‘Think Before You Share’ campaign and take the opportunity to have these difficult yet crucial conversations today.

* 302 reports received between 3 November and 21 December 2025 in comparison to the 170 reports received during the same period in 2024.

** From 96 Report Remove reports actioned between 3 November-21 December 2024 to 186 reports actioned during the same period in 2025.