Concerns over children committing sexual crimes against other children in Surrey
52% of relevant offences in England and Wales are now committed by people under 18
Half of child sexual abuse offences reported to police in 2022 were crimes committed by children, a landmark report has found.
Previously around a third of recorded crimes were classed as child-on-child - those aged 10 to 17 committing offences against other children - but in 2022 this rose to 52% in what police called "a growing and concerning trend".
There were almost 87,000 child sexual offences recorded by police across the UK in 2022/23 while in Surrey there were 1,026.
This included what is classed as "exploratory online sexual behaviours", but also serious sexual assaults including rape.
Data obtained by the NSPCC shows that the number of child sexual offences rose by 8.5% from 1,503 in 2020/21 to 1,631 in 2022/23, amid fears an increasing amount of those offences may have been committed by other children.
Denise Ellis, head of the NSPCC Helpline service, said: "we receive on average one call every hour that's related to child sexual offences; the numbers are rising.
"Every day we're receiving calls in regards to harmful sexual behaviour - and this is peer-on-peer abuse. What they've got access to these day can contribute to it, with inappropriate online platforms and young people pretending that they're a different age."
The national Police Chiefs Council report said:
"This challenging time of isolation and lockdowns meant there were fewer opportunities for authorities, teachers or friends to identify abuse signs.
"It's highly likely that many of these crimes are going unreported and hidden for years."
Abuse by gangs, ranging from sharing images to physical abuse, made up 5% of reported cases, while 32% were online sexual abuse.
The report also found that some perpetrators are using artificial intelligence and "deep fake" technology to create indecent images of children.
Regionally, most of the cases were reported in the north west of England, where 19.3% of offences were recorded.
However the force with the greatest number was Britain's largest, the Metropolitan Police, followed by West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.
Ian Critchley, National Police Chiefs Council lead for Child Abuse Protection and Investigation, said:
"Child abuse is an appalling crime, and this analysis helps us understand more widely the growing challenges we are all facing nationally not least young people growing up today.
"We also know that sadly reported crime remains significantly lower than the actual crimes of child abuse that take place with the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse reporting one in six girls and one in 20 boys will be abused in childhood, an appalling statistic and one we must all seek to change.
"This analysis will help police and our partners develop and improve our prevention, disruption, and investigation of these appalling crimes against children."
Wendy Hart, deputy director for Child Sexual Abuse at the National Crime Agency, said:
"As this report shows, the scale of child sexual abuse continues to increase year on year.
"It highlights that this is a largely hidden crime, and the NCA estimates that there are up to 830,000 adults in the UK that pose some degree of sexual risk to children.
"We also know from our collective analysis that the severity of offending has increased, as have the complexities faced by law enforcement in tackling it.
"We are now seeing hyper-realistic images and videos of abuse being created using artificial intelligence, for example, while the rollout of end-to-end encryption by technology platforms makes it a lot more difficult for us to protect children.
"Alongside our policing partners and Ofcom, we are working closely with industry to ensure platforms have adequate safety measures designed in, and that our collective ability to tackle the threat keeps pace with technology.
"With over half of reported crimes involving child on child abuse, there has never been a greater need for education in this space.