Grooming cases at a record high
photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
As we await the UK online safety laws the NSPCC has announced that grooming of children online is at an all time high. The NSPCC reports that there were 34,000 online grooming crimes recorded by UK police forces since it first called for tougher laws in 2017. That by any standard is a huge number. The report goes on to say that over 73% of these crimes involved either Snapchat, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp or Facebook.
Under 18s will tend to use Snapchat, WhatsApp and Instagram more than any other social media apps; this is common knowledge and so groomers will deviate to these sites too. Although I am obviously not under 18, I have received a ridiculous amount of friend requests from people I don’t know on Instagram over the last 6 months. I post very little on my account, yet I am being bombarded. I just hit delete and never engage, however, children are more than likely to respond and if the person on the other end doesn’t have good intentions, the young person could very soon be in a cycle of despair.
Parents, schools, children’s charities, youth leaders etc do advise children against accepting online friend requests from people they do not know, but by our very nature we like to make new friends. Meta (they own Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Threads) have technology that restricts people over 19 from messaging teens who don’t ‘follow’ them. This unfortunately relies on people giving their correct dates of birth when they create an account. Snapchat have improved their platform technology which can help identify sexual exploitation of young people. They also have extra protections for under 18s to make it harder for them to be contacted by people they don’t know. They also have tools for parents, so they know who their teens are talking to.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command, or CEOP Command, is a command of the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) and is tasked to work both nationally and internationally to bring online child sex offenders, including those involved in the production, distribution and viewing of child abuse material, to the UK courts. The centre was formed in April 2006 as the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre and was absorbed into the NCA on 7 October 2013 by the Crime and Courts Act 2013. Their website: https://www.ceop.police.uk/Safety-Centre/ is interactive and can be used by children as young as 4. They can play games and answer questions to move along in the game, questions such as ‘’I have received a friend request from someone I don’t know, what should I do?’’, or for older children it gives them advice, and any age can talk to a child protection advisor. It isn’t always easy for a young person to talk to parents or teachers, especially if they find themselves in a situation and are afraid they may be in trouble. Groomers use this to their advantage, often telling the child that they cannot tell anyone, or they’ll get into trouble. The CEOP website reinforces to the child accessing their site that they are doing the right thing, that CEOP are there to help and that they can help and support the child/young person with what they have been experiencing and can make it stop.
Together with the tools parents can access to keep an eye on who their child is interacting with online, and ensuring that they only access age-appropriate sites, we can do our bit to keep our children and young people out of the path of sexual predators.
While we wait for UK legislation to catch up with technology, we need to re-educate our children and young people on the dangers of online friends. This may be an uncomfortable conversation for some parents, but it does need to happen at the earliest opportunity.
Pauline Jackson
District Safeguarding Officer
Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire District