Donation Update - £300 for Childline
Six months ago, I sat down and wrote an update very much like this one. Back then, I had a single paid subscriber keeping the faith (Cheers, Jules!). One person. And if you have ever been in a position where one person believing in you is the difference between carrying on or calling it a day, you will know what that felt like.
Today, I have six!
Six months. Six paid subscribers. An awful lot to be grateful for.
Let me give you the numbers first, because transparency is the whole point here for me. Paid subscriptions since November have generated £287.84 in gross income. Stripe, who process the payments, take their fees, which came to £37.23. That would have left £250.61 going to Childline.
I am covering those fees myself.
The full net amount goes to the charity, and I am topping it up to make it a round three hundred pounds.
£300 is being donated to Childline today.
That is not a small number when it comes from a blog that is, by design, not trying to make anyone rich. This is not a business, it is a mission. The money is going to a charity that answers the phone when a child has nobody else to call.1
The growth matters too
When I wrote the November update, this blog had 288 subscribers. Today, it has 493.
I know some people would look at 493 and think, that’s a small number. In the world of social media metrics, maybe it is. But I think about it differently. That is 493 people who looked at the subject of children’s online safety and decided it was worth their time. That is 493 people who might have a different conversation with their child, their student, their colleague, because of something they read here, which is what keeps me going. If one child is diverted away from harm, then it was all worth it to me.
The ripple effect of that cannot and should not be measured in a Stripe dashboard.
From one paid subscriber to six. From 288 to 493. The oak is growing.
⚡Please don’t forget to react & restack if you appreciate my work. More engagement means more people might see it. ⚡
A note on why I do this
I spent the last eight years of my RAF Police career working in digital forensics and incident response. I analysed over a million images, at least a quarter of which were criminal, with no counselling and no support. I was medically discharged with C-PTSD in 2019.
I am not writing that to generate sympathy. I am writing it because it is the answer to the question I get asked most, “Why do you keep doing this when the subject is so heavy?”
Because I have seen what happens when nobody is watching. Because I have sat with the evidence of what adults do to children when they think the internet gives them cover. Also, because I would rather spend my energy getting that information to parents and teachers than sitting with it alone.
Every paid subscription is a vote of confidence in that reason. Every pound you send goes to Childline, not to me.
Thank you
To my six paid subscribers: I see you, and it means the world to me.
To my 493 readers: you are the reason I keep writing when my head is telling me to walk away.
If you have been thinking about upgrading to a paid subscription, you now know exactly where it goes. It does not sit in my pocket. It goes to help a child who picks up the phone in the middle of the night, when they have nowhere else to turn.
That feels like a reason worth enabling.
As always, thank you for your support. Please share this across your social media, and if you do have any comments, questions, or concerns, then feel free to reach out to me via the Social page, as I am always happy to spend some time helping to protect children online.
Remember that becoming a paid subscriber means supporting a charity very close to my heart and helping it do amazing things for people. Childline, I will donate 100% of paid subscriptions collected every six months, as I don’t do any of this for financial gain.
If you or a child you know needs support:
Childline: 0800 1111 | childline.org.uk
Available 24/7, 365 days a year. Free, confidential, and here for every child.
Childline is a free, confidential counselling service for children and young people in the UK, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week by phone and online, operated by the NSPCC. All figures and claims in this post draw from the Stripe activity report covering November 20, 2025 to May 20, 2026. childline.org.uk, accessed May 2026.