2024-11-01 / News

Online grooming crimes against children increase by 89% in six years

As offences rise to record levels, we’re calling for a strengthened approach from Ofcom and for tougher legislation from the UK government.

More than 7,000 Sexual Communication with a Child offences were recorded by police last year (2023/24) – up 89% since 2017/18 when the offence first came into force.
Almost half of offences were on Snapchat (48%), where a means of communication was known.
Most grooming cases (81%) take place against girls while primary school children are also being targeted by offenders.
We’re urging Ofcom to significantly strengthen its approach to child sexual abuse and for the UK government to ensure the regulator can tackle grooming in private messaging.

Online grooming crimes have reached record levels across the UK, with offences topping 7,000 for the first time, new data¹ we've compiled reveals.

The figures, provided by 45 UK police forces, show 7,062 Sexual Communication with a Child offences were recorded in 2023/24 – up 89% since 2017/18 when the offence first came into force.²

The data in detail

The data reveals the most common platforms that perpetrators used to target children online, in cases where the means of communication was disclosed.³

Snapchat 48%
WhatsApp (Meta) 12%
Facebook and Messenger (Meta) 10%
Instagram (Meta) 6%
Kik 5%.

Perpetrators typically used mainstream and open web platforms as the first point of contact with children.

This can include social media chat apps, video games and messaging apps on consoles, dating sites and chatrooms. Perpetrators then encourage children to continue communication on private and encrypted messaging platforms where abuse can proceed undetected.

Of total cases where gender was known in 2023/24, 81% of children targeted were girls.

The youngest victim of online grooming in 2023/24 was a 5-year-old boy.

Thomas* was 14 when he was groomed online. He said:

“Our first conversation was quite simple. I was just chatting. The only way I can describe it is like having the most supportive person that you could ever meet.

"After about a month, the pressure started to build of him trying to prove that I was gay. That’s when he started sending explicit pictures and pressuring me to send images to him. I did send him pictures, but I didn’t like it and I didn’t want to do it anymore.

“He said he had saved the images and would send them to everyone if I stopped sending more pictures. There was a constant fear in the back of my mind. It wasn’t easy but I managed to block him on all sites and carry on with my life.”

Our call to strengthen Ofcom rules and UK law

We’re urging Ofcom to significantly strengthen the rules that social media platforms must follow to tackle child sexual abuse.

The regulator currently puts too much focus on acting after harm has taken place. We would like rules to be in place so that platforms have to be proactive to ensure the design features of social media apps are not contributing to abuse.

We’re also calling on the UK government to strengthen legislation to ensure child sexual abuse is disrupted in private messages such as on Snapchat and WhatsApp.

Our Voice of Online Youth young people’s group were not surprised at the prevalence of Snapchat in offences.

Liidia, 13 from Glasgow, said: “Snapchat has disappearing messages, and that makes it easier for people to hide things they shouldn't be doing.

“Another problem is that Snapchat has this feature where you can show your location to everyone. If you're not careful, you might end up showing where you are to people you don’t know, which is super risky.

“And honestly, not all the rules in Snapchat are strict, so some people take advantage of that to do bad things. Apps should have better ways for us to report bad things, and they should always get updated to protect us better with the latest security tech.”

Sir Peter Wanless, NSPCC Chief Executive, said: “One year since the Online Safety Act became law and we are still waiting for tech companies to make their platforms safe for children.

"We need ambitious regulation by Ofcom who must significantly strengthen their current approach to make companies address how their products are being exploited by offenders.

“It is clear that much of this abuse is taking place in private messaging which is why we also need the Government strengthen the Online Safety Act to give Ofcom more legal certainty to tackle child sexual abuse on the likes of Snapchat and WhatsApp.”

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You can contact the NSPCC Helpline by calling 0808 800 5000 or emailing [email protected]

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Online grooming crimes against children increase by 89% in six years

The data in detail

Our call to strengthen Ofcom rules and UK law

Worried about a child?

Contact our Press Office

More advice and information

Inappropriate or explicit content

Reporting online safety concerns

Online wellbeing