Almost 2000 online grooming crimes recorded by North East police forces in wait for new safety laws
Figures have been released by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), as final decisions around the Online Safety Bill are expected next month.
Nearly 2000 online grooming crimes have been recorded by Northumbria, Cleveland and Durham Police since 2017, when sexual communication with a child became an offence.
The Online Safety Bill is expected to pass in autumn, with MPs and Lords debating the bill again after returning from summer recess.
The bill aims to create more robust online safety regulation and if passed, will place tougher duties on firms and tech bosses to protect young users.
However, the bill has had numerous delays since it was first published in March 2022.
The NSPCC first called the Government to bring in statutory regulation of social networks in 2017. Since then, Northumbria Police has had a 189% increase in grooming crimes over the 5-year period.
Val McFarlane is a Director at Bullying Intervention Group in County Durham, who offer online safety training to schools.
“The new online safety bill cannot come quickly enough. We’ve needed this for a long, long time. It really is totally unacceptable for our children and young people to be at risk of online grooming like this.
“But what the new bill hopefully will do, will bring in all sorts of new measures to make sure that we can protect our children.”
For Val, these figures only show half the story.
“These are only recorded cases. So can you imagine how many cases there will be, of children and young people being groomed that haven’t been brought to the attention of the police.
“There must be so many, it’s really scary. So we really need to get this bill passed as quickly as possible.”
Nationally, the NSPCC’s research has revealed over 34, 000 offences across the UK over the same period. Citing data from 40 UK police forces, the NSPCC said that 6,350 offences related to sexual communication with a child were recorded last year - a rise of 82% since the offence was introduced in 2017/18.
Sir Peter Wanless, Chief Executive of NSPCC said:
“Today’s research highlights the sheer scale of child abuse happening on social media and the human cost of fundamentally unsafe products.
“The number of offences must serve as a reminder of why the Online Safety Bill is so important and why the ground-breaking protections it will give children are desperately needed.”