Four-year-olds to be taught about online abuse risk
FOUR-YEAR-OLDS are to be taught how to cope with the threat of online sexual abuse by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
The NCA has developed the first lessons of their kind to build resilience in Britain’s youngest pupils because of an increasing trend for paedophiles to target ever-younger children for sex. Rob Jones, the NCA’S director for child sexual exploitation, cited a recent case of two men who filmed their abuse of children aged six months, two, three and five, after being incited to produce fresh child sex images by other online offenders.
Amid an explosion in online child abuse images referred to police, which it can be revealed have risen from 10.2 million worldwide last year to 18million this year, Mr Jones said there was increasing evidence of victims getting younger including “pre-verbal” children. “The way younger and younger children are being groomed is really disturbing,” said Mr Jones. “The level of sophistication of offenders creates an imbalance in the relationship. They exercise coercive control over the children, elicit pictures, blackmail and exploit them.”
He said it was akin to terrorist “radicalisation”, with offenders becoming normalised to child abuse images on the open web before seeking ever more graphic images on the dark web where they could only join paedophile groups by themselves producing new child abuse material.
Mr Jones said rather than scaring four and five-year-olds by directly raising sexual abuse, video and cartoon characters would help to give them the skills and language to be able to react when they have a “bad experience” online and speak to a “trusted adult”.
“It’s crucial we reach children before they become autonomous online and help them identify when something isn’t right online, understand how that is making them feel and how they respond safely to what they are experiencing,” said Kate Burls, the NCA head of education. It is the first time that the NCA has developed teaching materials for four-year-olds for its network of 100,000 education, social work and police professionals.
Ofcom figures show more than half of three and four-year-olds spend nine hours a week online, 19 per cent have their own tablet and, for the first time, some (1 per cent) have a social media profile despite most platforms requiring a minimum age of 13, By the time they are aged five to seven, 42 per cent have a tablet, 4 per cent have a social media profile and more than half spend on average 9.5 hours a week online.
The materials for four-year-olds, launched today, centre on a cartoon girl Jessie, her father and dog, and teaches her through the “funny tummy” song what to do if she gets a stomach-churning online experience.