Police chief warns over online content
CRIME: The country may be shamed by another national child sex abuse scandal if online platforms do not do more to clamp down on illegal content, the country’s most senior child protection police officer has warned.
THE UK may be shamed by another national child sex abuse scandal if online platforms do not do more to clamp down on illegal content, the country’s most senior child protection police officer has warned.
Simon Bailey said police are detecting more cases of child abuse imagery and online grooming than ever before, with around 450 monthly arrests for viewing indecent material involving children just the “tip of the iceberg”.
The popularity of live streaming platforms such as Periscope means children are inadvertently sharing material that becomes a magnet for paedophiles, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for child protection warned.
But Mr Bailey said internet companies such as YouTube have a “social and moral responsibility” to remove abusive content, adding: “We cannot police the internet.”
He will continue using his “tiny voice” to stand up to the internet giants, but fears they will only act once they begin to suffer reputational damage.
Mr Bailey said: “We have to have that honest conversation that says ‘the scale of this is just far greater than anybody ever imagined’.
“My concern is we could end up with the IICSA (Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse) of 2030 or 2035, that says ‘How on earth did you, as a society, ever permit the levels of abuse that were being perpetrated in the 2000s, because you didn’t get to grips with the fact that there was platforms and environments that were created that allowed that abuse to take place?’, in a way that IICSA is now looking back decades to the abuse that was taking place predominantly within religious establishments and education establishments.”
Meanwhile South Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner has warned of an emerging threat of child exploitation by criminal gangs – where vulnerable youngsters are ‘groomed’ then trapped in a sinister world.
Dr Alan Billings is concerned that if allowed to go unchecked, the situation could develop into a problem with similarities to child sexual exploitation – the scandal which rocked Rotherham several years ago before being identified in other UK towns and cities.
Dr Billings said his mind became focused on the issue during talks with the previous Home Secretary and other ministers about serious violent crime, using Government statistics.
“We noticed some people with blades are getting younger, school children,” he said.
“Gangs are starting to look for young people to use, to get their drugs moved around. Some is ‘county lines’, going to rural and coastal areas but some is within cities.
“It got me thinking, is there something developing? I don’t want to exaggerate it but you can see potential for drawing people into a way of life we would regard as abhorrent.
“But to some young people, especially if they are not doing well at school, or not in school, if someone is offering quick and easy money they can get drawn in. That is a grooming technique, offering an exciting way of life. But before you know it, you are in and they and then you have to do what you are told,” he said.
As a result, he is now raising the issue with a wide range of those who work with children, from South Yorkshire Police itself, to Youth Offending Teams and those with influence over children in society, such as school teachers and councils.
“The authorities see these victims as offenders, they are offenders if they are carrying knives and drugs,” he said.
That is a grooming technique, offering an exciting way of life.
Dr Alan Billings, South Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner.