Online Child Sex Offences On Rise In South West
The NSPCC say the police recorded more online child sex offences last year compared to the year before
Last updated 3rd Sep 2020
Police forces in the South West logged significantly more online child sex offences during 2019/20 compared to the previous year.
Data obtained by the NSPCC reveals more than 10,000 crimes were recorded by all 46 forces across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands for 2019/20 – making it the first time the figure has passed that mark.
In Devon and Cornwall the number of recorded offences doubled from 26 to 52, while it went up by 28 percent in Avon and Somerset and 19 percent in Gloucestershire.
Wiltshire was the only county in the region to witness a decrease, of 18 percent form 77 cases to 63.
Nationally, the offences increased by 16% from the previous year where data from police forces is available and includes crimes that had a cyber element such as grooming, sexual assault and rape.
That takes the total number of recorded offences in the five years since it became mandatory to record whether a crime involved the internet to more than 37,000,.
The NSPCC though claim the figure is likely to significantly understate the true extent of the problem because of potential under-recording by police forces of the role of the internet.
While the Freedom of Information data does not include the lockdown period, risks to children online have increased and Childline counselling sessions on grooming did go up.
The charity says this highlights the urgent need for the Government to push forward with the Online Harms Bill, which would place a legal Duty of Care on tech firms to protect children, enforced by an independent regulator.
The NSPCC is calling on the Government to publish its final plans before the end of the year, and get an Online Harms Bill on the statute book by the end of 2021.
Andy Burrows, NSPCC Head of Child Safety Online Policy, said: “These figures suggest that online abuse was already rising before lockdown, and the risks to children appear to have spiked significantly since.
“It is now almost 17 months since the Government’s original proposals for social media regulation were published and children continue to face preventable harm online.
“At the Hidden Harms Summit, the Prime Minister signalled he was determined to act. That’s why he needs to prioritise making progress on a comprehensive Online Harms Bill this Autumn, and pass legislation by the end of 2021, that sees tech firms held criminally and financially accountable if they put children at risk.”
The NSPCC has been campaigning for a Duty of Care on tech firms since the launch of its Wild West Web campaign in 2018.