The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) centre's latest report revealed that the emergence of social networking sites, such as Facebook and MySpace, is having an effect on online offending patterns.
The Strategic Overview 2007/08 is based on reports submitted to the centre from young people, adults, and domestic and international law enforcement agencies over one year. It found social networking sites are the second most common method of grooming, behind instant messaging.
Ceop said that as instant messaging applications are increasingly embedded into social networking sites, the centre expects to see an increase in reports of grooming in these environments. Jim Gamble, chief executive of Ceop, said internet businesses must be vigilant against this behaviour.
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