This report from the Crown Prosecution Service referrs to the case involving two girls as young as 16, who made complaints to separate police forces across the UK. It demonstrates the growing complexity of technology-facilitated child sexual abuse and exploitation.
The abuse took place through online chat rooms, as they exploited and preyed upon young girls from different parts of the UK. The shared illegal indecent images of them and encouraging them to commit acts of self-harm.
The chair of The Cyber Trust was asked for his opinion and said, “This case underlines the need for comprehensive Cyber Security advice and education in particular for vulnerable young people and their parents so that they all may access online information safely and appropriately. In this case, we can see the dangers of online chat rooms through exploitation by people that try and get in contact with users of such spaces for criminal purposes.”
The Cyber Trust's Family Internet Monitoring Project may become part of the solution to this sort of crime by ensureing that parents are aware of their children's involvement with people online and can intervene to protect them when required.
Read the full report here.
