Online Grooming Crimes More Than Double in West Midlands Since 2017
NSPCC calls on tech companies to act urgently as popular apps like Snapchat and WhatsApp are used to target children
Online grooming crimes have more than doubled in the West Midlands since the offence was introduced in 2017, according to new data from the NSPCC.
Last year, police recorded 391 offences of Sexual Communication with a Child across Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, and West Mercia. That is up from 194 in 2017/18, when the law came into force.
Nationally, the picture is just as worrying, with 7,263 offences recorded across the UK last year—almost twice as many as when the offence was introduced.
Many of these crimes take place on popular social media platforms like Snapchat, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. Of those offences where the platform was known, 40 percent happened on Snapchat, 9 percent on WhatsApp, and 9 percent on Facebook and Instagram.
Girls made up 80 percent of victims where gender was recorded. The youngest victim recorded was a four-year-old boy.
Rachel Wallace, NSPCC Local Campaigns Manager for the Midlands, said “Online grooming is a big concern for us for lots of children and for parents and carers. We know that last year in the West Midlands there were 391 sexual communication with a child offences recorded and we presume the real number is likely much higher because abuse happens in private spaces where harms are harder to detect. The number of offences has doubled since the law was introduced in 2017-18 and we’re seeing a lot of these happening on Snapchat, WhatsApp and Facebook.”
She added “We’re urging tech companies to take responsibility to keep children safe online using safety by design features. The technology exists to implement tools on a child’s phone that can scan for nude images and identify child sexual abuse material before it’s shared. Using meta-analysis to understand when and how people use platforms helps spot suspicious behaviour. Creating barriers for adult profiles engaging children on social media is another important step. There’s a whole host of actions tech companies can take.”
Rachel continued “We’re urging Ofcom, the government and tech companies to act urgently to protect children online.”