The Covid-19 lockdown led to more children at home, unsupervised, feeling isolated from their friends and inevitably some looked to build relationships online. The lockdown also gave offenders more time and opportunities to engage with children online. The children’s charity NSPCC warned that “the risks to children spiked significantly” during lockdown and A BBC article this month reports that charities have seen an increase in children seeking help about naked images shared online. A further BBC report stated that “reports of obscene online material more than doubled globally to more than four million between March and April”.
Since 2016, approximately 400 to 450 people are arrested in the UK each month for offences of online‑facilitated child sexual abuse[1]. The government’s Serious and Organised Crime Strategy 2018 recognised that “the exploitation of children online is becoming easier and more extreme… Child sex offenders are becoming more sophisticated, using social media, image and file sharing sites, gaming sites and dating sites to groom potential victims… Live-streamed abuse is a growing threat and children’s own use of self-broadcast live-streaming applications are being exploited by offenders”.[2]
Child sexual exploitation is a topic that needs to be handled sensitively and age-appropriately, but children need to be prepared for online risks before they unwittingly stumble across them. That means teaching online safety in primary school, before they start using the internet unsupervised.
In the modern world, knowing how to recognise grooming, controlling relationships and other inappropriate behaviour, and the responses needed to protect themselves, are essential life skills. Children need to understand the consequences of their actions, to be empowered to say no, to block and report unwanted contact. If it all goes wrong, they need to know how to access confidential advice services or have the confidence to confide in a trusted adult. Knowing that they are victims in the grooming process and are not to be blamed can make it easier for children to seek help.
Equally important is teaching children not to pressure others to behave riskily and not to onward share any inappropriate images that may be forwarded to them. Unfortunately, the prevalence of sending nude images online has led to the behaviour becoming normalised. As a result, some children may not see it as harmful and are, therefore, not being as inhibited as they might once have been. What hasn’t changed, however, is the distress caused when images shared in confidence are turned against them and used to extort further images or money or to humiliate and degrade children in front of their peers.
According to the recent report by the Independent Inquiry on Child Sexual Exploitation (IICSE), Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are often identified as the most common platforms where grooming takes place and there has been a rapid escalation in the numbers being groomed. Although most social media platforms prohibit under 13’s, the lack of strict age-verification processes, means it is easy to evade their restrictions.
Did you know:
- the 11 to 14 years age group may be most vulnerable to online‑facilitated child sexual abuse[3]
- There has been a relatively recent increase in abuse images of prepubescent females. This is partly attributed to self-produced images [sexting] that are appropriated by parasitic websites and then distributed through third-party websites[4]
- almost a quarter of images of Child Sexual Abuse are produced through covert means without the victim’s awareness, and a growing proportion of images are computer-generated pseudo-images[5].
- Girls are more likely to be victims of reported online-facilitated Child Sexual Abuse, but it is in no way restricted to girls;
- Above average internet use increases vulnerability when interacting with other characteristics, such as having a disability or low self-esteem;
- In approximately one quarter of reported cases, the perpetrator is a family member.[6]
Gooseberry Planet offers a number of scenarios for different age groups addressing this issue, and they are supported by Parent Advice Sheets. Videos produced by Europol give an insight into how young people can unwittingly become victims of online exploitation: be aware this may not be suitable for younger children.
[1] https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/15735/view/learning-about-online-sexual-harm-november-2019.pdf p 16.
[2] Ibid p 16.
[3] Ibid p 18.
[4] https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/3722/view/rapid-evidence-assessment-quantifying-extent-online-facilitated-child-sexual-abuse.pdf p 15.
[5] Ibid p 16.
[6] https://www.iicsa.org.uk/key-documents/3719/view/rapid-evidence-assessment-characteristics-vulnerabilities-victims-online-facilitated-child-sexual-abuse-exploitation.pdf p 9.
