Half of web grooming cases now uncovered by paedophile hunters
ALMOST half of online grooming cases prosecuted in Scotland are uncovered by paedophile hunters, police watchdogs have revealed.
The vigilante groups were far more proactive than police at weeding out abusers online because the force did not target resources in that area, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) said.
It warned the number of unregulated and untrained vigilante groups would continue to grow unless Police Scotland improved its investigative techniques.
HMICS has made ten recommendations, including that the force should undertake an online child sexual abuse ‘strategic threat assessment’ to accurately identify the scale, nature and risk to children of such abuse.
Police Scotland said protecting children is a top priority and they will carefully consider the report.
Gillian Imery, HMICS chief inspector, said there are ‘real challenges’ to capturing the true nature and extent of online child sexual abuse.
She added: ‘There is no dedicated analytical capability or centralised intelligence assessment directed at online child sexual abuse. This hampers the force’s ability to identify future trends and developments, to formulate proactive responses and to task specialist resources. There is very little proactive work being carried out in this area of criminality.’
She added: ‘One of the main proactive tactics would be employing the services of undercover online specialist officers, however this rarely happens. Almost half of the online grooming cases emanate from the activities of online child abuse activist groups [vigilante groups], who are unregulated and untrained.’
The report also said there was ‘an acknowledgement by Police Scotland that online child sexual abuse has not been given sufficient prioritisation’.
Online child sexual abuse, which can include the taking, distributing or viewing of indecent images of children, online grooming, inciting children to commit sexual acts online and live streaming of sexual abuse, has risen significantly in recent years.
Police Scotland figures in the report showed the number of online child abuse referrals rose from 141 in 2013 to 1,961 by the end of last year. The force also reports a 65 per cent increase in the number of recorded offences of communicating indecently with a child over the period, from 359 in 2013-14 to 592 in 2018-19.
Joanna Barrett, policy and public affairs manager for NSPCC Scotland, said: ‘Law enforcement is only part of the solution – it is imperative that online harms laws are brought in imminently so that tech companies are forced to make their platforms safe, so that children stop being groomed, sexually abused and exposed to harm on their sites on a daily basis.’