More than 7,000 online grooming crimes recorded in North West since offence came into force

The NSPCC is revealing more than 7,000 online grooming crimes have been recorded by police across the North West, since the offence first came into force in 2017.

The figures provided by Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Lancashire Police also show 1,086 Sexual Communications with a Child offences were recorded across the region in the last year alone.

The new findings reveal that Snapchat was the most popular platform used by perpetrators to target children online in 2023/24.

Meta platforms were also popular with offenders, with WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger, and Instagram all being used to abuse children.

Young people are then often encouraged to continue communication on private and encrypted messaging platforms where abuse can proceed undetected.

The youngest victim of online grooming in 2023/24 was a five-year-old boy.

Gareth Hill is the NSPCC lead for online media work: "We've seen a a big increase in the number of online grooming crimes taking place across the UK, in particular in the North West. There have been more than 7,000 online grooming crimes since 2017 when a new law came into place which outlawed some of this. We really need to see some action from tech companies and from Ofcom, the new regulator to really turn the tide on this abuse.

"For too long, child safety has been an afterthought for social media companies. What we need to see is them to embed safeguards into their platforms to ensure that the young people who use these platforms are safe. Ultimately, these platforms have been made without their safety in in mind, we've now got an Online Safety Act coming into force in the next few months and we really need to see Ofcom to hold these companies to account.

"Obviously, if parents are worried, there are things they can do; they can talk to their children about what they're doing online, discuss platforms they use, discuss the safety measures that can be put in place and, for younger children, think about those parental controls that come with some of these platforms."

A Snapchat spokesperson said: “Any sexual exploitation of young people is horrific and illegal and we have zero tolerance for it on Snapchat. If we identify such activity, or it is reported to us, we remove the content, disable the account, take steps to prevent the offender from creating additional accounts, and report them to the authorities. We have extra protections including in- app warnings to make it difficult for teens to be contacted by strangers, and our in-app Family Centre lets parents see who their teens are talking to, and who their friends are.”