Dark web blamed for child sex abuse crisis

MORE than 400,000 people in Britain searched for child sex abuse images or videos on the dark web in just one month last year.

The huge number of active offenders reveals the threat to children has never been so high, says the National Crime Agency.

Last week the Sunday Express revealed the number of online child sex abuse cases reported to police rose by almost 20 per cent last year. In the year from March 2021 to the end of February, there were 17,022 cases passed from the NCA to police forces, up from the 14,260 the previous year.

Groomers often coerce children to send self-generated explicit images and video which are then shared among paedophiles.

The NCA said the huge amount of child sex abuse material now available online and the number of people accessing it has created a “permissive” environment where offenders “normalise” their twisted behaviour and may go on to abuse children offline.

Sarah Blight, NCA deputy director for child sexual abuse, said: “Child sexual abuse is increasing in scale, severity and complexity, meaning the threat to children is more severe than it has ever been. The sheer volume of material available online has created a permissive environment for offenders to develop their sexual interest in children.

“This environment has an extremely low bar of entry and allows offenders to meet other like-minded individuals who normalise their behaviour, often leading to an escalation of offending to contact abuse.”

An NCA spokeswoman said: “In a single month in 2021, there were over 400,000 Uk-based people searching for child sexual abuse material on the dark web.” Ms Blight added: “We estimate there are 550,000 – 850,000 people in the UK who pose varying degrees of sexual risk to children.

“In 2020 the NCA warned of a spike of offending during the pandemic.

“We make over 850 arrests and safeguard more than 1,000 children every month.

“However, we cannot tackle this with law enforcement action alone. Child sexual abuse is a big societal issue and every part of the public and private sector has a part to play.

“This is particularly true of the tech industry, as offenders are increasingly exploiting social media sites to abuse children.”

The Online Safety Bill currently going through Parliament places a legal duty of care on tech companies to keep users safe.

Andy Burrows, of the NSPCC, said: “The rising number of online child sexual abuse cases is evidence of the scale of the problem.

“These alarming figures reinforce the need for a stronger Online Safety Bill that gives Ofcom the powers to proactively tackle grooming and abuse in private messaging.”

‘The threat is more severe than ever’