Online grooming crimes against children increase by 89% in 6 years

Over the years there has been an increase in online platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram and Kik just to name a few. Children are able to access these platforms easily and without needing to prove their age, which has resulted in an increase of online grooming.

Studies carried out by the NSPCC have revealed that more than 7,000 Sexual Communication with a Child offences were recorded by police last year – up 89% since 2017/18 when the offence first came into force.

Almost half of these offences were carried out on snapchat (48%), although Snapchat has confirmed it has “zero tolerance” of the sexual exploitation of young people and had extra safety measures in place for teens and their parents. 

The gender of the victims of grooming offences are not always recorded by police, but of the cases where it was known, four in five victims were girls.

Although Snapchat is one of the smaller social media platforms in the UK, it is extremely popular with children and teenagers. The fact that the app has ‘disappearing messages’ is one of the key reasons for its popularity. Messages and images disappear after 24 hours which makes incriminating behaviour a lot harder to track. It also alerts the sender if the recipient has taken a screenshot.

In a statement, the minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, Jess Philips said “Social media companies have a responsibility to stop this vile abuse from happening on their platforms. Under the Online Safety Act they will have to stop this kind of illegal content being shared on their sites, including on private and encrypted messaging services or face significant fines”.

The Online Safety Act includes a legal requirement for tech platforms to keep children safe, although reports often show this is still not good enough. 

Although police forces across the country are working tirelessly to investigate and prevent these crimes, technology companies also need to take responsibility for the safety of children on their online platforms.