Kids turned into abusers

CHILDREN as young as five are ‘perpetrating sexual abuse’ on other children thanks to the spread of social media, MPs in Britain have been warned.

More and more primary school pupils are exhibiting ‘harmful sexual behaviour’ as a result of what they learn online, the children’s charity Barnardos said.

Problems range from touching other children’s private parts to encouraging them to watch inappropriate videos online. Other children are increasingly being groomed online in live broadcasts, evidence to MPs states.

Experts said more and more youngsters were taking part in ‘live streaming’ sessions in their bedrooms, with parents oblivious that their children were sharing explicit content. These scenes can be streamed across the world and then harvested by paedophile websites.

Barnados told the Commons science and technology committee that three-quarters of referrals for child sex abuse are now internet-related – a rise from 20% in three years.

Emily Cherry, assistant director of policy and public affairs at the charity, said increasingly young children are becoming perpetrators as well as victims.

She called for live moderation on sites such as Periscope, Facebook.live, Musical.ly and Live.ly which stream content live because these sites were providing predatory adults with the opportunity to start ‘livegrooming children’.