Children aged just 5 carry out sex abuse due to social media

CHILDREN as young as five are ‘perpetrating sexual abuse’ on their peers due to social media use, a charity has warned.

More and more primary school-aged pupils are exhibiting ‘harmful sexual behaviour’ they have learned online, Barnardo’s said.

This ranges from touching other children’s private parts to encouraging them to watch inappropriate videos online.

Other minors are increasingly being groomed online in live broadcasts, evidence to MPs states, with parents often oblivious that their children are sharing explicit content in their bedrooms.

These scenes can be live streamed across the world and then harvested by paedophile websites. Barnardo’s told the Commons science and technology committee three- quarters of referrals for child sex abuse are now internet-related – up from 20 per cent three years ago.

Emily Cherry, of Barnardo’s, said young children are increasingly becoming perpetrators as well as victims. Unless such behaviour is tackled early, it could get worse in later life, she added. She told MPs: ‘Children are perpetrating sexual abuse against other children, which is an increasing concern for us.

‘We are seeing children come through the doors at a younger and younger age, below the age of criminal responsibility. We are seeing children as young as five and an increase in the number of children aged eight to ten coming through our doors for this. They are telling us they are on social media sites.

‘The technology-assisted side of harmful sexual behaviour is definitely growing, from the numbers that we see coming through our doors.’ She said children were being coaxed into ‘streaming’ sexually explicit images of themselves online.

And Miss Cherry demanded more robust age verification and moderation by sites such as Periscope, Facebook Live and Musical.ly, which provide paedophiles the opportunity to start ‘live-grooming’ children.

She said children would use the live stream sites ‘innocuously’ before predatory adults in a kind of ‘pack mentality’ ask them to lift up their top, for example. Miss Cherry urged parents to be careful about allowing children access to devices that can broadcast. Parents who recognise problematic sexual behaviour in their children ‘should seek advice – from a GP, from a teacher or, if they are especially concerned, a social worker’, she added.

Susie Hargreaves, of the Internet Watch Foundation charity, told MPs that parents of children ‘often in nice bedrooms’ were ‘oblivious to what is happening there’.

Its research found the number of ‘self-generated’ child sexual abuse images and videos – ie, filmed by the victims – has soared nearly 400 per cent in one year. Increasingly, children from loving and stable backgrounds were falling victim to grooming, she said, warning parents to supervise their child’s use of technology.

A Government spokesman said it had increased funding to tackle child sexual exploitation, adding: ‘UK citizens, especially children, must not be exposed to harm or exploitation and we are working with tech companies, children’s charities and other stakeholders to develop laws that tackle the full range of online harms.’ d.martin@dailymail.co.uk

‘Parents oblivious to what’s happening’