Child grooming cases in South Yorkshire DOUBLE in a year
Most kids across the UK are being targeted on Instagram
The number of child grooming cases being reported to the police in South Yorkshire has doubled in the space of just one year.
New stats show in the 12 months to April there were 163 incidents of Sexual Communications with a Child dealt with by officers here - up from just 59 the year before.
That's a rise of more than 175%.
The NSPCC have renewed their calls for the government and social media companies to do more to crack down on kids being targeted online.
Chief Executive Peter Wanless said:
“It’s now clearer than ever that Government has no time to lose in getting tough on these tech firms.
“Despite the huge amount of pressure that social networks have come under to put basic protections in place, children are being groomed and abused on their platforms every single day.
"These figures are yet more evidence that social networks simply won’t act unless they are forced to by law. The Government needs to stand firm and bring in regulation without delay.”
The new figures show Instagram's overtaken Facebook as the platform most likely to be used to exploit children across the UK.