NSPCC: Record numbers of children groomed online amid pandemic

There were 5,441 sexual communication with a child offences recorded across 42 police forces between April 2020 and March 2021, data obtained by the NSPCC through a Freedom of Information request shows.

This marks an increase of around 70 per cent compared with recorded crimes in 2017/18, the charity warned.

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There was an annual increase of nine per cent on offences recorded across the same police forces in 2019/20, the research adds.

Almost half of the offences involved the use of Facebook-owned apps, including Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, the NSPCC said.

Instagram was the most common site used, flagged by police in 32 per cent of instances where the platform was known last year while Snapchat was used in over a quarter of offences.

A 15-year-old girl told a Childline counsellor: “I’ve been chatting with this guy who’s like twice my age. This all started on Instagram but lately our chats have been on WhatsApp. He seemed really nice to begin with, but then he started making me do these things to ‘prove my trust to him’, like doing video chats with my chest exposed.”

The charity is calling on Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to strengthen proposals to tackle the online grooming of children in the upcoming Online Safety Bill.

The Bill is due to be scrutinised by a joint committee of MPs and Lords from September. 

Andy Burrows, head of child safety online policy at the NSPCC, said: “Year after year tech firms’ failings result in more children being groomed and record levels of sexual abuse.

“To respond to the size and complexity of the threat, the government must put child protection front and centre of legislation and ensure the Online Safety Bill does everything necessary to prevent online abuse.

“Safety must be the yardstick against which the legislation is judged and ministers’ welcome ambition will only be realised if it achieves robust measures to keep children truly safe now and in the future.”

Responding to the NSPCC’s research, a Facebook company spokesperson said: “This is abhorrent behaviour and we work quickly to find it, remove it and report it to the relevant authorities. 

“We also block adults from messaging under 18s they’re not connected with and have introduced technology that makes it harder for potentially suspicious accounts to find young people. With tens of millions of people in the UK using our apps every day, we are determined to continue developing new ways to prevent, detect and respond to abuse.”