Figures for England and Wales show there were 51,672 offences for child sexual exploitation and abuse online in 2024. Online child sexual abuse in England and Wales has surged by a quarter within a year, figures show, prompting police to call for social media platforms to do more to protect young people.
We don't yet know what the impact will be of the new Online safety Act and hopefully the numbers will drop significantly do to the act.
Becky Riggs, the acting chief constable of Staffordshire police who is the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection and abuse, said: “I know that these platforms, with the technology that’s out there, could prevent these harms from occurring in the first instance.”
She added that technology used by children should come with inbuilt protections, such as mobile phones that allow them to only access safe platforms and websites.
This issue will clearly not go away and our Family Internet Safety Project aims to promote pro-active monitoring rather than waiting until things happen.
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