UK police lead global fight against soaring online child abuse
BRITAIN’S National Crime Agency (NCA) is to lead a 32-nation police campaign to force tech giants to do more to combat soaring online child abuse.
The NCA has agreed a five-point action plan with police chiefs from 32 European nations demanding the firms “transform” their response to online child sex abuse, which saw 114,000 alleged crimes reported to police in the UK alone in 2018.
Lynne Owens, NCA director general, said the tech giants were too “reactive” when they should be “proactive” in preventing and combating grooming and the sharing of child abuse images.
She said: “In just three clicks, our officers could locate child sexual abuse on the open web. There is no barrier to offending and that cannot continue.
“The technology industry urgently needs to transform its response to counter the extreme level of online offending. The current industry response is reactive. To stop the pathway of escalation into severe offending, there must be zero tolerance of the presence of child sexual abuse on industry platforms, with industry reinforcing this at every level to raise the bar to offending.”
She warned the “relative ease” to view child sex material could lead to incitement and actual abuse, including the growing threat from live-streamed assaults on children that paedophiles could commission online from abroad for as little as £10.
“Offenders across Europe and globally are using the web to groom and harm children on the mainstream internet, using dark web tools to provide anonymity,” she said. “Children previously inaccessible to offenders, based anywhere in the world, are now exposed to significant risk of harm, even within their own homes.”
The five-point action plan demands child abuse material should be blocked as soon as companies detect it being uploaded and urgent action to stop online grooming and live-streaming.
The number of online child abuse referrals passed on to police worldwide has rocketed 15-fold since 2014 to 1.8 million last year.