Our #WildWestWeb campaign calls for Government to create a robust law to make social networks safer.
New figures from the Office of National Statistics show that police recorded thousands of incidents of the internet being used to commit child sexual offences in the past year.
In England and Wales, between October 2017 and September 2018:
- police recorded more than 9,000 child sexual offences with an online element
- child sex crimes with an online element made up 16% of the total number of recorded child sexual offences
- rape, sexual assault and grooming are included in the online crimes committed against children.1
The new figures may not show the true extent of the problem, due to the under-reporting and under-recording of child sexual offences, and the involvement of online in them.
Our #WildWestWeb campaign is calling for an independent regulator with the power to investigate and fine social networks if they fall short in protecting children.