Reports of online child sexual abuse dramatically increase
A dramatic rise in online-linked sexual crimes against children has prompted the NSPCC to call for tougher regulations
The children's charity have published new figures which show a 78% increase in police reports of child sexual abuse involving an online element in the last four years.
And more figures further indicate to the rise of online child sexual offences, with crimes rising from 5,458 in 2016/17 to 9,736 in 2020/21.
Yet this staggering increase has not been acted upon by the Government to an adequate level, as a new report by the NSPCC says, the Governments plans to regulate social media risk falling significantly short when it comes to protecting children from online abuse.
NSPCC claims that there are major shortfalls in the draft Online Safety Bill, currently being examined by MPs and peers, and the Government risks failing to meet its ambition to make the internet safe for children.
Therefore, NSPCC have no choice but to urge the Government to significantly strengthen its draft legislation in a number of areas, warning it currently does not do enough to stop abuse spreading between apps or to disrupt behaviour that facilitates abuse.
And alongside the charity's urge to strengthen the #OnlineSafetyBill, NSPCC are also urging everyone to join an additional campaign #WildWestWeb to stop grooming and sexual abuse.
The report also warns there are still major gaps in the draft Bill's child safety duty which would exclude some potentially harmful sites from liability, failing to hold senior managers at tech firms accountable and that it should commit to introducing a statutory user advocate for children.
The NSPCC said that unless changes are made to the Bill in order to better acknowledge the broad range of child abuse and how it takes place online, it will not be able to tackle the scale and extent of abuse effectively.
"Children should be able to explore the online world safely. But, instead, we are witnessing a dramatic and hugely troubling growth in the scale of online abuse," Sir Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, said.
"The Government has a once-in-a-generation chance to deliver a robust but proportionate regulatory regime that can truly protect children from horrendous online harms."
"But, as it stands, there are substantive weaknesses in its plans which cannot be overlooked."
For help & support:
NSPCC: 0808 800 5000
Childline: 0800 1111
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