80 , 000 ONLINE PAEDOPHILES PREY ON KIDS
Abuse images up 700% in 5 years
CHILDREN are at risk of being targeted online by at least 80,000 paedophiles, the Home Secretary will reveal today.
The estimate from the National Crime Agency covers a full spectrum of offenders from “highly sophisticated” perverts using the dark web through to those who have looked at abuse images a few times.
Police recorded about 23 child sexual offences involving the web a day in 2017/18 – up from around 15 a day in the previous 12 months.
Referrals of child abuse images to the NCA surged 700% in the past five years, from 10,384 in 2012/13 to 82,109. The Home Office and Department for Culture, Media and Sport are writing an Online Harms paper, to press tech firms to do more to crack down on perverts.
In a speech to chiefs from tech firms, law enforcement and chari- ties, Home Secretary Sajid Javid will say: “They’re jumping from platform to platform, using the dark web and commercial sites. These people are as sophisticated as terrorists at hiding their tracks. But be assured, we are coming after them.” The NCA said in one week, 131 suspects were held for offences relating to indecent images of kids, 225 warrants were executed and 164 children safeguarded. Of the arrests, 13 were registered sex offenders and 19 held positions of trust. NCA director Rob Jones said: “The threat to children is evolving in severity, scale and complexity. We need the help of partners across the public and private sectors, in the UK and internationally, to help us protect children.”
Social media giants have previously been rapped for failing to remove child abuse content quickly.
But, grilled by MPs last December, officials from YouTube, Twitter and Facebook said removal of terrorist and child abuse material is a higher priority than far-right extremism and political or religious hate speech.
Barnardo’s chief Javed Khan said: “The Government must now deliver its promise to make the UK the safest place to be online, by forcing companies to ensure effective safeguards are in place to help protect children.”