A study by the London Violence Reduction Unit, funded by the Mayor of London, found that 97 per cent of child sexual exploitation referrals to charity Catch22 made at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic had an online or social media element.
It also found that more than two thirds of young people interviewed as part of the research had seen content online that was either violent or explicit during lockdown.
The study was carried out as part of The Social Switch Project, a collaboration between charities Catch22 and Redthread, and included interviews with vulnerable children and young people that use its services, frontline youth workers, police and tech platforms.
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