Further funding to tackle child sexual exploitation in Humberside region
Humberside's police and crime commissioner has been setting out how he plans to protect children here from being groomed online.
Ending child sexual exploitation in Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire is one of the biggest challenges, according to Humberside's police and crime commissioner today.
Matthew Grove has been setting out how he plans to protect children in our region from being groomed online.
He has just pledged a further £25,000 to help raise awareness of the problem.
The money will be used to educate kids about how they can protect themselves on the internet, as part of the Not In Our Community campaign.
Since launching at the end of 2014, the campaign has already reached out to tens of thousands of young people.
Matthew told Viking:
"Around 50,000 youngsters a month are accessing the information that is online from the Not In Our Community campaign. They are learning from the mistakes of others, they are learning what the techniques of those predatory paedophiles are. This is one area where we don't want to rely on the police dealing with the aftermath because it is a crime that changes lives forever.
"It's like the modern fairy tale of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, except instead of a flute, the groomers are using modern technology and social networks to lead our youngsters astray into a terrible, terrible experience.
"No longer are paedophiles lurking outside of schools, what they are now doing is targetting our children in their homes through social media and that is a huge challenge and a huge risk.
"What the predators are exploiting is the vulnerability and naivety of our young people as they make that transition from child to adult and what this programme is about is informing them, empowering them and helping them become adults more safely."