Tag: Stop It Now! Scotland

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.” 

Campaigners call on Scottish Government to develop national strategy to prevent child sexual abuse

Stop It Now! Scotland and NSPCC Scotland are calling on the Scottish Government to develop a national strategy to tackle child sexual abuse that focuses on prevention to make the country a safer place to grow up.

The two charities hosted an event in partnership with the Scottish Parliament this week (Wednesday, March 15) with leading experts in the field.

They discussed the devastating harms and long-lasting impact that sexual abuse can have on victims, that punishment alone will not eradicate this problem and what we can do to prevent children being abused in the first place. They also talked about the next steps we need to take to guarantee Scotland is the safest country for children to grow up.

They are urging the Scottish Government to develop a comprehensive and coordinated national approachto prevent child sexual abuse, which involves health, police, education, community safety, children’s services, social services, housing and the wider community. The child protection charities say it is vital that everyone understands what child sexual abuse is and knows how they can be part of preventing it.

A review of UK data revealed that 15 per cent of females and 5 per cent of males will experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of 16.

This means at least 80,000 children in Scotland will have been affected by this issue before they leave high school. Although this is thought to be an under-representation of the scale of the problem and the actual number of children who have experienced sexual abuse in Scotland is not known.

The charities say that to understand the numbers of children in Scotland affected and the scale of the suffering it is crucial that a prevalence survey is conducted.

Professor Elizabeth Letourneau, Director of the Moore Centre for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, School of Public Health, John Hopkins University, said: “Child sexual abuse affects about one in nine children – 12 per cent of all children – globally. Victims are at risk of immediate harms, such as fear, injury, and pregnancy, and a broad array of serious health problems can emerge and last across the lifespan.

“Only one in five cases of child sexual abuse are ever reported to the authorities. This means that we miss at least 80 per cent of cases, so punishment will never be enough if we are to effectively address this public health problem.

“I believe our failure to focus on prevention stems from a general misgiving that child sexual abuse really is not preventable. That people who are at risk of perpetrating abuse are monsters and their behaviour cannot be predicted or prevented, and they will only respond to punishment.

“But we know this is not true. We already have good evidence that we can effectively prevent child sexual abuse perpetration.”

Pat Branigan, Assistant Director of NSPCC’s Together for Childhood, said: “One of the most important messages from today is that child sexual abuse is preventable and not inevitable.

“The ultimate goal is to develop a framework, based on evidence of what we know already works, which can be used to support agencies and organisations to work together and prevent child sexual abuse in communities.

“We need to create strong local partnerships between social care, schools, health, voluntary groups, the police and communities that focus on preventing people from offending, and empower and educate children and adults to recognise the signs of abuse and how they can report their concerns.

“Ultimately it will not be governments, experts or professionals who eradicate child sexual abuse, it will be individuals, families and communities.”

Stuart Allardyce, Director, Lucy Faithfull Foundation / Stop It Now! Scotland, said: “Last year we helped 7,000 people across the UK through our Helpline.  Not all were adults worried about their own sexual thoughts, feelings and behaviour, but around half of them were.

“We also had adults who were worried about another adult, or because they had found evidence their partner has been seeking out child sexual abuse material online.

“We believe that if you build prevention initiatives, people will come – professionals, protective adults, but also those who worried about the risk that they may present to children. We can no longer say that people won’t use self-help prevention resources, because the evidence is that they can and do and that prevention works.”

Childlight, based at the University of Edinburgh, also launched the first comprehensive global data repository this week, which will look at all forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA), with the aim of being able to show the scale and nature of this abuse. 

Children and young people can contact Childline for free, confidential support and advice 24 hours a day online at www.childline.org.uk or on the phone on 0800 1111

Anyone with concerns about a child’s wellbeing can contact the NSPCC Helpline on help@nspcc.org.uk. The NSPCC practitioners provide free and confidential help and advice and can take appropriate steps to help keep children safe. If a child is in immediate danger, please call 999.

The NSPCC also has advice and resources for parents, carers on how to have simple, age appropriate conversations with children to help prevent sexual abuse through their Talk PANTS campaign. This helps children understand that their body belongs to them and to recognise when something is not okay and how to tell someone.

Charities and Scottish Parliament host online event to improve how we prevent child sexual abuse in Scotland

  • Stop It Now! Scotland and NSPCC Scotland are today (Wednesday, March 15, 2023) hosting ‘Public Health Approaches to Preventing Child Sexual Abuse’
  • The online event will look at the evidence on preventing sexual abuse and what could be done in Scotland to better protect children before abuse begins and to help with their recovery

Stop It Now! Scotland and the NSPCC are calling on the Scottish Government to develop a national strategy to tackle child sexual abuse that focuses on prevention to make the country a safer place to grow up.

The two charities, which are today hosting an event in partnership with the Scottish Parliament, say working together to stop the abuse from happening in the first place will prevent the devastating impact it has on the mental health of children and adult survivors.

They are urging the Scottish Government to develop a comprehensive and coordinated national approachto prevent child sexual abuse, which involves health, police, education, community safety, children’s services, social services, housing and the wider community. The child protection charities say it is vital that everyone understands what child sexual abuse is and knows how they can be part of preventing it.

A review of UK data revealed that 15 per cent of females and 5 per cent of males will experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of 16. This means at least 80,000 children in Scotland will have been affected by this issue before they leave high school. Although this is thought to be an under-representation of the scale of the problem and the actual number of children who have experienced sexual abuse in Scotland is not known.

The charities say that to understand the numbers of children in Scotland affected and the scale of the suffering it is crucial that a prevalence survey is conducted.  At the event, leading experts will discuss current evidence on preventing child sexual abuse and explore the next steps needed to make Scotland the safest country for children to grow up.

Joanne Smith, NSPCC Scotland’s Policy and Public Affairs Manager, said: “Child sexual abuse has a devastating impact on people’s lives.

“The response, to date, has focused largely on bringing perpetrators to justice and providing some children with therapy and support. But we believe that as a society our focus should be on preventing child sexual abuse before it occurs, before people at risk of abusing become offenders, and before potential victims become actual victims. Understanding child sexual abuse, and what causes it, is a vital step towards developing effective prevention strategies.”

Stuart Allardyce, Director, Lucy Faithfull Foundation / Stop It Now! Scotland, said: “We are calling on the Scottish Government to carry out a dedicated prevalence survey to identify the levels of sexual offending against children in Scotland, alongside a national strategy for tackling child sexual abuse.

“We know that sexual abuse has an enormous impact on the mental health outcomes for children and adult survivors and the economic costs for the criminal justice system.

“We believe sexual harm towards children and young people could be reduced if we focused more on prevention, including therapy being offered to adults who are worried about their sexual thoughts and feelings towards children.”

Childlight, based at the University of Edinburgh, also launches the first comprehensive global data repository today, which will look at all forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA), with the aim of being able to show the scale and nature of this abuse. 

The international team, made up of experienced individuals from academia, the private sector, law enforcement and non-governmental organisations, will produce an annual report, global dashboard and index with the data that can be used by tech companies, law enforcement agencies and those who work in child protection so they can take action to prevent CSEA. 

Speakers at the online event will include:

  • Professor Elizabeth Letourneau, Moore Centre for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, School of Public Health, John Hopkins University
  • Pat Branigan, Assistant Director – Together For Childhood – NSPCC
  • Stuart Allardyce, Director, Lucy Faithfull Foundation / Stop It Now! Scotland
  • MSP Clare Haughey, Minister for Children and Young People

Children and young people can contact Childline for free, confidential support and advice 24 hours a day online at www.childline.org.uk or on the phone on 0800 1111.

Anyone with concerns about a child’s wellbeing can contact the NSPCC Helpline on help@nspcc.org.uk. The NSPCC practitioners provide free and confidential help and advice and can take appropriate steps to help keep children safe. If a child is in immediate danger, please call 999.