EPIDEMIC OF SEX CRIMES.. BY CHILDREN Mobiles and social media ‘putting porn into kids’ pockets’
more difficult it is for a 10-yearold?” All of the children arrested were aged 10 or over – the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales. Younger children cannot be arrested or charged, but can be given supervision orders. Most victims were other children, but in some cases adults were abused by kids.
Figures from January 2015 to June this year included a report of sex abuse by a six-year-old in Bedfordshire, and an eight-yearold in Lancashire alleged to have raped a boy under 13. At least seven police forces arrested 10-year-olds in connection with rapes of male and female victims. Fewer than one in seven children arrested were charged. Prof Wilson added: “It will get worse if everybody doesn’t share responsibility. We can’t let the big players, Facebook and Google, off the hook. Firms make money producing these images and finding platforms on which they are shared.
“It should be a matter of regulating them as much as punishing the perpetrators.”
South Yorkshire recorded the highest number of allegations, probing 1,622 claims of attacks.
A spokesman said Google had a “zero tolerance” approach to explicit images which featured children, but would not say what it was doing to stop kids accessing porn involving adults. He added: “Content that exploits or endangers children is abhorrent.”
Facebook had not replied to our request to comment by the time we went to press.