Over a thousand online child sex crimes recorded in the East
Many were committed through Facebook-owned apps.
Last updated 26th Mar 2021
New data from the NSPCC reveals Facebook's apps were used in more than half of online child sex crimes, as the charity calls on the Government to deliver meaningful change in the Online Safety Bill to tackle the biggest threat to children online.
In a single year, police recorded more than 9,470 instances across the UK where the means of communication was known in reports of child sex abuse image and online child sex offences - 52% of which took place on Facebook-owned apps.
This data has been obtained from 34 police forces in England, Wales and the Channel Islands by the NSPCC via Freedom of Information requests.
In the 12 months between October 2019 and October 2020 police forces in the East of England (not including Thames Valley) recorded 1,075 online child sex crimes where the method of communication was known - 48% of these involved Facebook-owned apps.
The charity fears many of these could go unreported if Facebook proceeds with end-to-end encryption without necessary safeguards in place.
The charity is urging the Government to give Ofcom the power to take early and meaningful action against firms whose dangerous design choices put children at risk.
The charity argues the current plans released by the Government in December, need to be strengthened.
End-to-end encryption offers a range of benefits, but child protection experts, law enforcement worldwide and Facebook themselves have said it will hinder their ability to identify and disrupt child abuse on their services.
The NSPCC has repeatedly demanded that it should only be rolled out if and when platforms can demonstrate it won't compromise children's safety.
The issue is brought into sharp focus by WhatsApp which accounts for one in ten instances recorded by police where Facebook's apps were involved in online child sexual abuse, according to the new data.
But last year they only make up 1.3% of child abuse tip-offs from Facebook to the NCA because they can't see the content of messages to report abuse.
Private messaging is a major source of risk as it is the most common avenue for abusers to contact children.
Last month, the Office for National Statistics revealed children are contacted via direct message in nearly three quarters of cases when they are approached by someone they don't know online.
Andy Burrows, NSPCC Head of Child Safety Online Policy, said:
"Facebook is willingly turning back the clock on children's safety by pushing ahead with end-to-end encryption despite repeated warnings that their apps will facilitate more serious abuse more often.
"This underlines exactly why Oliver Dowden must introduce a truly landmark Online Safety Bill that makes sure child protection is no longer a choice for tech firms and resets industry standards in favour of children.
"If legislation is going to deliver meaningful change it needs to be strengthened to decisively tackle abuse in private messaging, one of the biggest threats to children online."
In response to the research, a Facebook company spokesperson said: “Child exploitation has no place on our platforms and we will continue to lead the industry in developing new ways to prevent, detect and respond to abuse.
“For example, last week we announced new safety features on Instagram including preventing adults from messaging under 18s who don’t follow them.
“End-to-end encryption is already the leading security technology used by many services to keep people, including children, safe from having their private information hacked and stolen.
“Its full rollout on our messaging services is a long-term project and we are building strong safety measures into our plans.”
What do the NSPCC want the Government to do?
In response to its latest report and looking to the Online Safety Bill, the NSPCC said it was calling on the Government to shift the onus onto tech firms to show they were identifying and mitigating risk in products before rolling them out, rather than relying on the regulator to prove risk.
It was also calling for the regulator to be given the power to force firms to act before harm has occurred rather than after, and to be able to consider design decisions that could be deemed risky to users.
A Government spokesperson said: “Our Online Safety Bill will bring in world-leading measures to protect children and ensure there is no safe space for paedophiles to hide on social media.
“The burden will fall solely on social media companies to prove they’re doing all they can to keep children safe and they will not be able to use encryption as an excuse.
“End-to-end encryption risks blinding both social media companies and law enforcement to these dreadful crimes and tech companies must put public safety at the heart of their system designs or face heavy fines.”