Sexual messages being sent to children have risen by 80 per cent in the last five years, shocking Police Scotland figures reveal.
Between April 2020 and March 2021 there were 685 offences of indecent communications with a child in Scotland – a record high and a rise of 80% from the same period in 2015 to 2016.
The figures, obtained by the NSPCC Scotland also reveal there was an increase of five percent from 2019 to 2020.
for offences against children under the age of 13, the number of recorded crimes rose by 11 per cent, from 334 to 370, between 2019/20 and 2020/21.
Offences against children under the age of 13 rose by 11% from 334 to 370, between 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021.
Offenders are exploiting the design features of popular social media apps and the NSPCC calling on the UK Government to respond by ensuring the ambition of the Online Safety Bill matches the scale of the biggest ever online child abuse threat.
One 15-year-old girl, whow cannot be identified, was contacted by a person twice her age on Instagram,
She told the NSPCC’s Childline counsellors: “I’ve been chatting with this guy who’s like twice my age. This all started on Instagram but lately our chats have been on WhatsApp. He seemed really nice to begin with, but then he started making me do these things to ‘prove my trust to him’, like doing video chats with my chest exposed.”
The charity also warn that the figures for the last year do not represent the full impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on children’s online safety.
They say in the last six months of 2020 Facebook removed less than half of the child abuse contant it had previously as a result of two technology failures.
According to the NSPCC, tech firms failed to adequately respond to the increased risked faced by children online during the lockdowns as a result of previous lack of action to ensure sites were made safe.
Safety announcements from Instagram, Apple and TikTok have been welcomed by the NSPCC however they still say firms must go further and are playing catch up in responding.
The charity is calling on the UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden to step up the ambition of the Government’s Online Safety Bill to ensure proposals comprehensively tackle the online abuse threat.
The NSPCC say the Draft Online Safety Bill published in May needs to go much further to keep children safe and ensure it creates a practical response that corresponds to the scale and nature of the child abuse problem.
The Bill is due to be scrutinised by a Joint Committee of MPs and Lords from September and experts say it will be a crucial opportunity to ensure legislation provides solutions.
The NSPCC have called for the Bill to be strengthened to address the way in which abuse can spread across platforms.
Joanne Smith, NSPCC Scotland policy and public affairs manager, said: “The failings of tech firms are resulting in record numbers of children being groomed and sexually abused online.
“To respond to the size and complexity of the threat, the UK Government must make child protection a priority in legislation and ensure the Online Safety Bill does everything necessary to prevent online abuse.
“Legislation will only be successful if it achieves robust measures to keep children truly safe now and in the future.”
The charity have also urged Facebook to invest in technology to ensure their plans for end-to-end encryption will not prevent the identification of abuse and disruption to its access.
The charity says Facebook should proceed only when it can prove child protection tools will not be compromised and wants tougher measures in the Online Safety Bill to hold named-managers personally liable for design choices that put children at risk.
A UK Government spokesperson told the Daily Record: “Keeping children safe is one of our highest priorities and the strongest measures contained in the Online Safety Bill are designed to protect children.
“If social media companies do not properly assess or take action against the risks their sites pose to children, they will face heavy fines or have their sites blocked. The Bill will further make tech companies accountable to an independent regulator.
“We are clear that companies must continue to take responsibility for stopping the intolerable level of harmful material on their platforms and embed public safety in their system designs, which is why the Bill will also compel them to consider the risks associated with all elements of their services and take robust action to keep their users safe.”
