More than 5,000 online grooming offences have been recorded by police in England and Wales in just 18 months, data obtained by the NSPCC has revealed.
Essex Police recorded 128 of these offences during that period.
Nationally, the recorded use of Instagram has risen dramatically over the 18 months. From April 2017 to September 2017, where the communication method was recorded, Instagram was used by groomers in 126 instances, whereas between April 2018 and September 2018 it was recorded 428 times – more than a 200% increase1.
The data obtained from 39 of the 43 forces in England and Wales, under Freedom of Information laws, also shows that in the latest six month period, girls aged 12 to 15 were most likely to be targeted by groomers and victims included children as young as five years old.
Ahead of the imminent publication of the Government’s Online Harms White Paper, the NSPCC is urging ministers to tame the Wild West Web by bringing in statutory regulation to enforce a legal duty of care to children on social networks, backed by hefty fines if they fail.
One thing that we would recommend to parents, is to install software that allows them to view what has been typed on their children’s computer or smartphone. For example, this pcTattletale Windows keylogger review would help them understand the sort of software that can be used for this purpose. We imagine the number of perpetrators would likely increase if parents monitored their children’s online devices more strictly.
