Steep rise in sexual assaults by children

Internet pornography blamed as 30,000 offences, including rapes at school, are reported to police

REPORTS of children sexually assaulting each other have almost doubled in the past four years figures show, as experts blame the rise in the availability of online pornography.

Police have received almost 30,000 reports of children committing sexual offences since 2013, with 2,625 – including 225 alleged rapes – carried out by under-18s on other children on school premises, including primary school playgrounds.

Reports of so-called “peer on peer” abuse rose from 4,603 in 2013 to 7,866 last year, according to the data released by 38 of the 43 police forces across England and Wales in response to Freedom of Information requests.

Figures from 30 forces show reports of sexual offences by children aged 10 and under have more than doubled from 204 in 2013-14 to 456 in 2016-17. Experts and charities have been warning of the damaging effect that pornography may have on children’s behaviour for some time. David Cameron when prime minister, once describing it as “corroding childhood”.

Mary Sharpe, chief executive of addiction charity The Reward Foundation, has said that unless people face up to the reality of what online material is “covertly teaching” the young, the crime rate will continue to rise.

Warning about the “ignorance” surrounding the dangers of internet porn, she added: “We teach how internet pornography trains the teen brain to want to carry out such acts. The effect of a criminal conviction is devastating.”

Almost three quarters of child sex cases (74per cent) reported to 36 forces between April 1 2013 and May 31 2017 resulted in no further action, according to the figures obtained by BBC programme Panorama.

Some children – anonymised to protect their identities – who were interviewed by the current affairs programme told how they felt bullied, let down and isolated after reporting abuse. “It’s not what actually happens that has the worst effect on you, it’s what comes after it. It’s the being disbelieved – it’s the people failing you,” said one.

Abused children and their parents also spoke of struggling to get help from schools or the authorities.

One victim said: “There was no talk about the police or telling his parents or taking it further, it was only really, ‘oh block him’, or ‘stay away from him in lesson’.”

Another child’s parents said: “I couldn’t actually believe that we’re in the 21st century in Great Britain and we are allowing sexual abuse to continue… and for victims to go unsupported.”

Government guidance tells teachers that they have a legal duty to report allegations of sexual assaults on children by adults.

But there is no such duty when a child is accused of sexual assault, with schools advised to follow their own child protection procedures.

However, the Department for Education told the programme: “Sexual assault is a crime and any allegation should be reported to the police.”