Online grooming Calls for action as police figures show rise in offences

ONLINE grooming crimes have hit record levels. Figures provided by Avon and Somerset Police to the NSPCC highlight 300 sexual communication with a child offences were recorded last year up from 229 in 2017/18.

- Ian LEWIS

On a wider scale, figures provided by 44 police forces across the UK, show that 7,263 of those offences were recorded last year. Where police forces could be directly compared, the number of crimes had almost doubled (99%) from the year the offence first came into force in 2017/18.

Nationally, of the 2,111 offences where police could identify the platform used, 40% took place on Snapchat, 9% on WhatsApp and 9% on Facebook and Instagram.

Where gender was known, 80% of children targeted were girls. Meanwhile, the youngest victim of online grooming recorded was a four-year-old boy.

To tackle this issue, the NSPCC is publishing new research setting out solutions which can be used to prevent, detect and disrupt grooming in private messaging spaces.

The charity highlights that while these are the offences recorded by police, the real number of crimes is likely to be much higher due to abuse happening in private spaces where harms can be harder to detect.