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The Chayn DIY Online Safety Guide is designed to support survivors of digital harm—especially those who may be feeling overwhelmed, confused about what’s happening, or unsure of where to turn. It focuses on five of the most common types of digital abuse: scams, online harassment, image-based abuse, nonconsensual location-tracking, someone accessing your accounts without your consent, and also other complex harms that don’t always fit neatly into one category.
The Chayn DIY Online Safety Guide is designed to support survivors of digital harm—especially those who may be feeling overwhelmed, confused about what’s happening, or unsure of where to turn. It focuses on five of the most common types of digital abuse: scams, online harassment, image-based abuse, nonconsensual location-tracking, someone accessing your accounts without your consent, and also other complex harms that don’t always fit neatly into one category.
Experiencing digital abuse can be worrying, frightening, and confusing. We can feel ashamed or guilty, even though we haven’t done anything wrong. We may even feel alone and isolated. This guide aims to clearly name and explain what might be happening in different situations, and provide simple actions we can take to protect ourselves or report abuse if it’s safe to do so.
The guide was created for people navigating digital abuse in all its forms. It’s also for the advocates, friends, and professionals who support them. Whether someone is in crisis, building a safety plan, or just beginning to question something that feels off, the guide offers calm, practical support in clear, accessible language that centres survivor autonomy.
Trauma-informed language is at the heart of this guide. That means:
If you feel able then we’d love to hear from you, whatever your thoughts. You’ll find a general feedback option at the bottom of every page, and we also provide the opportunity for more detailed feedback at the end of this guide here.
This guide covers some sensitive issues, and you may find certain parts of it difficult or distressing. In particular, we talk about:
While reading, be gentle with yourself and check in on how you're feeling. Remember, it's okay to stop at any time.
This guide covers different types of digital abuse, but we understand that only specific parts are likely to be relevant for each person. Our aim has been to design it so you can get to the information you need, when you need it.
We’ve structured the sections in this guide to cover different situations, so you can head straight for the content that applies to you. You can do that via the navigation options below, or you can use our What do you need right now? selector.
Each section of the guide is on a separate page, and there are a number of ways you can find your way around the guide as a whole:
At Chayn, we’ve developed our own set of trauma-informed design principles that we follow in everything we do. Experiencing digital abuse can be deeply distressing, traumatic, and draining, so it can be helpful to take a pause before beginning and set an intention to approach this guide in whatever way feels comfortable.
We have permission to go at whatever pace feels right for us. It’s okay to skip sections, come back later, or just focus on one small step at a time. Our wellbeing is the most important thing.
When dealing with difficult emotional issues, it’s important to take care of ourselves and our nervous system, and grounding exercises can help with that. Here’s one example that can be used over and over, but other breathing exercises, meditations, visualisations and more are available free on our healing platform, Bloom.
This is a simple, quick exercise we can do anywhere to calm your system and connect with our body.
In this exercise, we’ll take 3 deep, slow breaths. Find a comfortable spot, either sitting or lying down. Take your time. When you’re ready, close your eyes and start to notice the sensations in your body.
This guide covers some key types of digital abuse, and they may not be relevant for everyone. You can skip straight to the situation closest to your experience, pick out a few to focus on, or you can read them all. Choose your starting point below.
