Action urged as online child sex crimes soar in Wales
WELSH police have logged more than 2,600 online child sex offences in Wales in just five years.
Online sex crimes have soared in the past year, when forces recorded 566 such offences – more than double that of when the “cyberflag” was introduced in 2015/16.
Sexual assault, rape and grooming accounted for the 2,622 recorded crimes in Wales since the system came into force.
Online risks to youngsters went up and Childline counselling sessions on grooming went up during lockdown,
An online safety action plan has been drawn up by the Welsh Government following calls from NSPCC Cymru during 2016.
The NSPCC has called on the Cardiff Bay administration to review and update its plans on a yearly basis in a bid to keep youngsters safe online.
Pressure has been mounting on the UK Government to push forward with the Online Harms Bill, which would place a legal Duty of Care on tech firms to protect children, enforced by an independent regulator.
Charity chiefs have called on Westminster to publish its final plans before the end of the year and get an Online Harms Bill on the statute book by the end of 2021.
Olivia’s daughter Emma, whose identity is being protected, was groomed and sexually exploited through an online game called Movie Star Planet from when she was six years old.
The abuser gained her trust then threatened her into sending him and other adults sexually explicit images and committing sexual acts for two years.
“He would threaten to expose her if she didn’t do as she was told, that he would even put her in a “shallow grave” or kill us, her parents,” said her mother.
“As she got older, she is now 14, she began to struggle. Her behaviour changed, she became angry, depressed and would cry without really knowing why.
“She found it incredibly hard to make herself go into school and would ring me in tears, not knowing why she couldn’t go through the door. It was horrible, I felt so helpless when she talked about self-harming and not wanting to go on living.”
NSPCC data revealed 10,391 crimes were recorded by all 46 forces across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands for 2019/20.
It is the first time police logged more than 10,000 online child sex offences in the space of 12 months.
UK-wide offences soared by 16% from the previous year, leading the number of recorded offences in five years to soar to more than 37,000 offences after internet crime was recorded.
But the numbers are believed to understate the true extent of the problem due to the potential under-recording by police forces of internet crime and the variation in the way forces log the offences.
Andy Burrows, NSPCC Head of Child Safety Online Policy, said: “These figures suggest that online abuse was already rising before lockdown, and the risks to children appear to have spiked significantly since.
“It is now almost 17 months since the Government’s original proposals for social media regulation were published and children continue to face preventable harm online. At the Hidden Harms Summit, the Prime Minister signalled he was determined to act.
“That’s why he needs to prioritise making progress on a comprehensive Online Harms Bill this Autumn, and pass legislation by the end of 2021, that sees tech firms held criminally and financially accountable if they put children at risk.”
The NSPCC has been campaigning for a Duty of Care on tech firms following the launch of its Wild West Web campaign during 2018.
Westminster has yet to publish the Online Harms White Paper during April 2019 but are still yet to produce the final consultation response.
It has drawn up a series of regulatory proposals setting out how social media regulation should work, including Taming the Wild West Web.
Following the end of the month, they will set-out further proposals underlining what powers the independent regulator needs in order to protect children online.
Adults concerned about a child online can contact the NSPCC helpline confidentially for advice and support on 0808 800 5000 or email help@nspcc. org.uk