Online sex abuse surging in 2020

The data does not include the lockdown periodbut the charity said Childline counselling sessions provided evidence that the grooming of children online increased when restrictions were enforced.

These figures included cyber-related crimes such as grooming, sexual assault and rape, and took the total number of recorded offences to more than 37,000 in the five years since it became mandatory to record whether a crime involved the internet. 

The NSPCC said the figures illustrated the way that paedophiles could bombard multiple social media accounts with similar messages, all targeted at children, in the hope that they could catch multiple potential targets.

NSPCC head of child safety and online policy, Andy Burrows, said, "These figures form part of an extremely concerning upward trend that imply the scale and complexity of online child abuse is surging. It is far too easy for offenders to target large numbers of young people on social media to groom and abuse them, which is why the Government must make progress on online harms legislation this autumn to urgently protect them."

Further comment was made that, "It is now almost 17 months since the government's original proposals for social media regulation were published and children continue to face preventable harm online."

The Johnson Partnership

Barnsley Crime Solicitors