Tag: grooming

Police Scotland launches campaign targeting sexual perpetrators

Police Scotland in partnership with Stop It Now! Scotland has launched a new campaign targeting sexual perpetrators who groom and abuse children online.

The #GetHelpOrGetCaught campaign targets men who are either already offending or at risk of offending and directs them to support to help them stop.

Reports of online child abuse continue to increase, with nearly 2,000 crimes recorded by Police Scotland between 1 April 2022 – 31 March 2023.

During this same period, Police Scotland carried out 700 investigations resulting in 500 arrests, and 800 children were protected.

And so far this year, (1 April and 31 August), specialist officers have investigated 290 online child sexual abuse cases resulting in 149 arrests and 269 children protected.  

Featuring a film produced by the charity Stop It Now! Scotland, the campaign highlights the consequences of offending for perpetrators and urges them to stop and seek help by contacting Stop It Now! Scotland.

Launching the campaign, Detective Chief Superintendent Martin MacLean from Police Scotland, said: “Tackling online child abuse remains a key priority for Police Scotland, and this includes working with partners to prevent abuse and divert potential perpetrators from committing offences.

“Online child sexual abuse is not virtual; its repercussions are real, for the victims of these horrific crimes, but also for perpetrators. Grooming, indecent communication and causing children to participate in sexual activity, are all serious criminal offences.

“We continue to build our cyber capability and expertise to identify child victims. Offenders need to understand they will be identified, arrested and will face the consequences of their actions: not just a conviction but the potential loss of family, reputation and livelihood.

“Abusers are responsible for their actions, it is up to them to take action and stop, to get help or get caught.”

Police Scotland consulted with Stop It Now! Scotland on the campaign.

Stuart Allardyce, Director of Stop It Now, Scotland, said: “There is help to stop. It is easier for people to successfully change their behaviour through support than trying to change on their own.

People who are worried about their sexual behaviour online can call us on our helpline. They can remain completely anonymous. We provide non-judgemental, confidential support to help someone stop their behaviour and keep children safe online.

“From the many people we work with and our research, we know that their frequent use, over long periods of time, of online legal pornography escalated to barely legal or extreme types of pornography and the viewing of illegal sexual images of children.

“Some of the people we work with discuss becoming more desensitised to adult pornography as time went on. Often, they feel trapped in a cycle of behaviour and require help with their mental health as well as their compulsive behaviours to take positive actions to break this cycle.

“If this is happening for you, don’t leave it until it’s too late to call. Many individuals who are arrested for this type of offence tell us they wish they had known there was support to help.

“We also work with families and friends impacted by the arrest of a loved one for viewing illegal images or engaging in illegal conversations online.

“From our experience, we know the devastation that can ensue once someone is arrested and the number of lives that can be changed forever.” 

More than 3,500 online grooming crimes against children recorded by Police Scotland while safety laws discussed

  • NSPCC urges tech companies and MPs to back Online Safety Bill following new research on scale of online grooming
  • Primary school children targeted in more than half of online grooming crimes in Scotland since social media regulation was first demanded

More than 3,500 online grooming crimes have been recorded by Police Scotland while children have been waiting for online safety laws, new figures published by the NSPCC reveal today.

Data from Police Scotland shows 593 Communicating Indecently with a Child offences were recorded last year (2022/23).

The new research shows that in Scotland, 1,873 offences took place against primary school children, with under-13s making up more than half of victims.

The new analysis of the scale of child sexual abuse taking place on social media comes ahead of MPs and Lords making final decisions on the Online Safety Bill next month.

The NSPCC first called for social media regulation to protect children from sexual abuse in 2017 and has been campaigning for robust legislation ever since.

The charity said the number of offences is likely to be far higher than those known to police. In response, they are urging politicians on all sides to support the Bill in its final stages and pass this vital legislation.

Aoife (19) from East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, was exploited online when she was 15 by an adult male who pretended to be a teenager.

The man convinced her to send him images of herself and blackmailed her with these to control her behaviour. When his demands became increasingly intense and frightening, Aoife plucked up the courage to tell her mum and teachers, who helped them to report it to the police.

Aoife said: “When I found out I’d been talking to an older man I was petrified. I remember it was 3am and I was sitting in my room, just shaking. I felt like I was the only person in the world and started crying.

“I wanted my mum, and while she was just in the room next door I thought I couldn’t tell her because it’s so embarrassing, but all I wanted was a hug from her.”

A draft Online Safety Bill was published over two years ago but regulation was first promised by Government in 2018 following the NSPCC’s call for action and the launch of its Wild West Web campaign.

The charity has been campaigning for strong legislation ever since, working closely with survivors, Government, Parliamentarians, and other civil society groups to ensure it effectively tackles the way social media and gaming sites contribute to child sexual abuse.

The legislation will mean tech companies have a legal duty of care for young users and must assess their products for child abuse risks and put mitigations in place to protect children.

It will give the regulator Ofcom powers to address significant abuse taking place in private messaging and require companies to put safeguards in place to identify and disrupt abuse in end-to-end encrypted environments.

The NSPCC said these measures are vital to effectively protect children from the most insidious abuse and recent polling shows they are backed by more than seven in ten voters.

Sir Peter Wanless, NSPCC Chief Executive said: “Today’s research highlights the sheer scale of child abuse happening on social media and the human cost of fundamentally unsafe products.

“The number of offences must serve as a reminder of why the Online Safety Bill is so important and why the ground-breaking protections it will give children are desperately needed.

“We’re pleased the Government has listened and strengthened the legislation so companies must tackle how their sites contribute to child sexual abuse in a tough but proportionate way, including in private messaging.

“It’s now up to tech firms, including those highlighted by these stark figures today, to make sure their current sites and future services do not put children at unacceptable risk of abuse.”

As well as winning the commitment to legislate, the NSPCC has helped shape significant gains for children in the Online Safety Bill as it has passed through Parliament, including:

  • Senior tech bosses will be held criminally liable for significant failures that put children at risk of sexual abuse and other harm.
  • Girls will be given specific protections as Ofcom will produce guidance on tackling Violence Against Women and Girls for companies to follow.
  • Companies will have to crack down on so-called tribute pages and breadcrumbing that use legal but often stolen images of children and child accounts to form networks of offenders to facilitate child sexual abuse.
  • Sites will have to consider how grooming pathways travel across various social media apps and games and work together to prevent abuse spreading across different platforms.

The NSPCC is still seeking assurances that the legislation will effectively regulate AI and immersive technology and wants an online child safety advocacy body specifically to speak with and for children as part of the day-to-day regulatory regime. They argue that this will help spot emerging risks and fight for the interests and safety of children before tragedies arise.

The charity are asking campaigners to reach out to MPs with personal messages about why they should act to make the online world safer for children and pass a robust Online Safety Bill in the coming weeks.

NSPCC warns of worrying levels of online child abuse as grooming crimes in Scotland continue to rise

Figures obtained by the NSPCC reveal online grooming crimes recorded by Police Scotland reach almost 3,000 in five years, with offences against under 13s rising by more than 60%.

Analysis of Freedom of Information data from Police Scotland shows that in 2021/22 there were 636 offences of Communicating Indecently with a Child, compared with 429 in 2017/18 – a 48% rise. For victims under the age of 13, there was a steeper rise with 369 in 2021/22 and 226 in 2017/18.

Data* from 41 UK police forces across the UK show an 84% rise in these crimes since 2017/18, with a total of more than 27,000 offences in the past five years.

The NSPCC says the sheer scale of offending shows the vital importance of ensuring that the Online Safety Bill effectively tackles child sexual abuse and has practical suggestions for how this is best done.

This should include giving the regulator, Ofcom, the powers to proactively tackle abuse in private messaging, making platforms work together to stop grooming pathways and stopping offenders from using social networks to organise abuse.

One 15-year-old girl who was groomed on multiple sites told Childline: “I’ve been chatting with this guy online who’s like twice my age. This all started on Instagram but lately all 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. Every time I did these things for him, he would ask for more and I felt like it was too late to back out.

“This whole thing has been slowly destroying me and I’ve been having thoughts of hurting myself.”

Sir Peter Wanless, NSPCC Chief Executive, said: “Online grooming is taking place at unprecedented levels and only concerted action will turn the tide on this tsunami of preventable abuse.

“The crucial Online Safety Bill is the opportunity to deliver the legislative change we urgently need to address head on these preventable crimes against children.

“We strongly welcome the Government’s ambition to deliver world-leading legislation. But as it seems increasingly clear that the pandemic has resulted in a long-term increase in the abuse threat, the current proposals must go further now to tackle online sexual violence and prevent avoidable abuse.”

The charity is asking the public to email their MP to support amendments to the legislation that aim to improve its response to child sexual abuse.

The NSPCC has set out a five-point action plan for the Online Safety Bill to systemically prevent avoidable child sexual abuse.

Polling shows widespread public support for the measures to be adopted so the legislation achieves its ambition of giving children receive a higher standard of protection online.

  1. Give the regulator powers to proactively tackle abuse in private messaging

Two thirds of child abuse is currently found in private messaging so the NSPCC welcomes that it will be in scope of the Bill.

But the charity wants Ofcom to be given power to proactively require firms to use technology to detect and disrupt grooming and the sharing of child abuse images.

  1. Make platforms work together to tackle grooming pathways

The NSPCC knows grooming doesn’t just happen on one site and offenders use well known grooming pathways to target children.

Companies should have a clear legal duty to address cross platform harm and legally co-operate with each other to disrupt grooming.

  1. Stop offenders from using social networks to organise abuse – breadcrumbing

Offenders perfectly legally use social media to form networks, then advertise a sexual interest in children and signpost to illegal child abuse content hosted on third party sites.

The NSPCC wants the Bill amended to combat the waysoffenders facilitate abuse on social media, which it says could prevent millions of interactions with accounts that contribute to grooming.

  1. Adopt a Violence Against Women and Girls Code of Practice

The Government should commit to a statutory code of practice on violence against women and girls to ensure the Online Safety Bill has a systemic  and enforceable focus on online sexual violence.

  1. A children’s watchdog that represents children’s needs

Children make up one in five UK internet users but are inherently vulnerable, according to the NSPCC. The charity said the Online Safety Bill can achieve its ambition to give children a higher standard of protection by creating a statutory watchdog to promote children’s interests, funded by a levy on the tech industry.

This user advocacy body would ensure child protection is front and centre of regulation, prevent harm by acting as an early warning system to flag emerging risks and call for swift action. This would be similar to the role played by Citizens Advice in the energy and postal sectors.

Child abuse image crimes in Scotland pass 3,000 in five years

Calls for stronger Online Safety Bill

  • Child abuse image offences recorded by Police Scotland up 13% last year and reach over 3,100 in just five years
  • ‘Social media being used as a conveyor belt to produce child abuse images on an industrial scale’
  • NSPCC sets out five-point plan to strengthen Online Safety Bill so it decisively disrupts the production and spread of child abuse material on social media

More than 3,000 child abuse image crimes were recorded by Police Scotland over the last five years, the NSPCC has revealed today.

Data obtained from Police Scotland shows the number of offences relating to possessing, taking, making, and distributing child abuse material peaked at 660 last year (2020/21) – up 13% from 2019/20.

The NSPCC previously warned the pandemic had created a ‘perfect storm’ for grooming and abuse online.

The charity said social media is being used by groomers as a conveyor belt to produce and share child abuse images on an industrial scale. It added that the issue of young people being groomed into sharing images of their own abuse has become pervasive.

The NSPCC is urging the UK Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries to seize the opportunity to strengthen the Online Safety Bill, so it results in decisive action that disrupts the production and spread of child abuse material on social media.  

The child protection charity said that behind every offence could be multiple victims and images, and children will continue to be at risk of an unprecedented scale of abuse unless the draft legislation is significantly strengthened.

Ahead of a report by Parliamentarians who scrutinised the draft Online Safety Bill expected next week, the NSPCC, which has been at the forefront of campaigning for social media regulation, set out a five-point plan to strengthen the legislation so it effectively prevents online abuse.

The charity’s online safety experts said the Bill currently fails to address how offenders organise across social media, doesn’t effectively tackle abuse in private messaging and fails to hold top managers liable for harm or give children a voice to balance the power of industry.

The NSPCC is critical of the industry response to child abuse material. A Facebook whistle-blower recently revealed Meta apply a return-on-investment principle to combatting child abuse material and don’t know the true scale of the problem as the company “doesn’t track it”.

And research by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection has raised concerns about whether some platforms have consistent and effective processes to takedown child abuse images, with some companies pushing back on removing abuse images of children as young as ten.

NSPCC Chief Executive, Sir Peter Wanless, said: “The staggering amount of child sexual abuse image offences is being fuelled by the ease with which offenders are able to groom children across social media to produce and share images on an industrial scale.

“The UK Government recognises the problem and has created a landmark opportunity with the Online Safety Bill. We admire Nadine Dorries’ declared intent that child protection is her number one objective.

“But our assessment is that the legislation needs strengthening in clear and specific ways if it is to fundamentally address the complex nature of online abuse and prevent children from coming to avoidable harm.” 

The NSPCC’s five-point plan lays out where the Online Safety Bill must be strengthened to:

  1. Disrupt well-established grooming pathways: The Bill fails to tackle convincingly the ways groomers commit abuse across platforms to produce new child abuse images. Offenders exploit the design features of social media sites to contact multiple children before moving them to risky livestreaming or encrypted sites. The Bill needs to be strengthened to require platforms to explicitly risk assess for cross platform harms.
  2. Tackle how offenders use social media to organise abuse: The Bill fails to address how abusers use social media as a shop window to advertise their sexual interest in children, make contact with other offenders and post digital breadcrumbs as a guide for them to find child abuse content. Recent whistle-blower testimony found Facebook groups were being used to facilitate child abuse and signpost to illegal material hosted on other sites.
  3. Put a duty on every social media platform to have a named manager responsible for children’s safety: To focus minds on child abuse every platform should be required to appoint a named person liable for preventing child abuse, with the ultimate threat of criminal sanctions for product decisions that put children in harm’s way.
  4. Give the regulator more effective powers to combat abuse in private messaging: Private messaging is the frontline of child abuse but the regulator needs clearer powers to take action against companies that don’t have a plan to tackle it. Companies should have to risk assess end-to-end encryption plans before they go ahead so the regulator is not left in the dark about abuse taking place in private messaging.
  5. Give children a funded voice to fight for their interests: Under current proposals for regulation children who have been abused will get less statutory protections than bus passengers or Post Office users. There needs to be provision for a statutory body to represent the interests of children, funded by an industry levy, in the Bill.

The NSPCC is mobilising supporters to sign an open letter to Nadine Dorries asking the UK Culture Secretary to make sure children are at the heart of the Online Safety Bill.

The NSPCC’s full analysis of the draft Online Safety Bill is set out in their ‘Duty to Protect’ report.

Record number of recorded grooming crimes in Scotland

Calls for UK Government to bolster online safety legislation

  • Offences of Communicating Indecently with a Child recorded by Police Scotland increase by 80% in last five years
  • True scale of grooming likely to be higher as Facebook tech failures saw drop in removal of abuse material during pandemic
  • UK Government Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden urged to strengthen draft Online Safety Bill to ensure it responds to the rising threat

Crimes of communicating a sexual message to a child have risen by 80 per cent in the last five years to an all-time high, Police Scotland figures obtained by the NSPCC reveal.

Offenders are exploiting risky design features on apps popular with children, the child protection charity has warned.

The NSPCC is calling on the UK Government to respond by ensuring the ambition of the Online Safety Bill matches the scale of the biggest ever online child abuse threat.

The data provided by Police Scotland reveals:

  • there were 685 offences of Communicating Indecently with a Child recorded between April 2020 and March 2021
  • that’s an increase of 80 per cent from 381 in 2015/16
  • there was also an increase of 5 per cent from 2019/20 – making the number of crimes recorded in the last year a record high
  • for offences against children under the age of 13, the number of recorded crimes rose by 11 per cent, from 334 to 370, between 2019/20 and 2020/21

A 15-year-old girl told one of our Childline counsellors: “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 NSPCC believes last year’s figures do not give a full understanding of the impact of the pandemic on children’s safety online.

The charity cites that in the last six months of 2020 Facebook removed less than half of the child abuse content it had previously, due to two technology failures.

The charity says tech firms failed to adequately respond to the increased risk children faced during lockdowns because of historic inaction to design their sites safely for young users.

The NSPCC welcomes the recent flurry of safety announcements from companies such as Instagram, Apple and TikTok, but says tech firms are playing catch up in responding to the threat after years of poorly designed sites.

The charity is calling on the Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to step up the ambition of the UK Government’s Online Safety Bill to ensure proposals comprehensively tackle an online abuse threat that is greater than ever.

The NSPCC says the Draft Online Safety Bill published in May needs to go much further to keep children safe and ensure it creates a practical response that corresponds to the scale and nature of the child abuse problem.

The Bill is due to be scrutinised by a Joint Committee of MPs and Lords from September, which experts say is a crucial opportunity to ensure legislation provides solutions that comprehensively fix the way platforms are exploited by abusers.

The NSPCC wants to see the Bill strengthened to address how abuse rapidly spreads across platforms and ensure it responds effectively to content that facilitates abuse.

Joanne Smith, NSPCC Scotland policy and public affairs manager, said: “The failings of tech firms are resulting in record numbers of children being groomed and sexually abused online.

“To respond to the size and complexity of the threat, the UK Government must make child protection a priority in legislation and ensure the Online Safety Bill does everything necessary to prevent online abuse.

“Legislation will only be successful if it achieves robust measures to keep children truly safe now and in the future.”

The NSPCC is also urging Facebook to invest in technology to ensure plans for end-to-end encryption will not prevent the tech firm from identifying and disrupting abuse.

The charity says Facebook should proceed only when it can prove child protection tools will not be compromised and wants tougher measures in the Online Safety Bill to hold named-managers personally liable for design choices that put children at risk.

The NSPCC has been calling for Duty of Care regulation of social media since 2017 and has been at the forefront of campaigning for the Online Safety Bill.