NSPCC: Online child sexual abuse risen by 141% in past four years in Northern Ireland

The NSPCC says that online sex child abuse in Northern Ireland has risen by 141% in the past four years as part of a ‘tsunami’ across the UK.
By Philip Bradfield
Published 5th Jul 2022, 19:41 BST
Updated 5th Jul 2022, 19:44 BST
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UK wide figures gathered by the charity show a more than 80% rise in online grooming crimes being recorded by police over the last four years.

But figures supplied by PSNI show a much steeper increase in Sexual Communication with a Child offences recorded in NI since 2017/18 - rising from 82 offences in NI in 2017/18 to 198 offences in 2021/2022.

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The figures have been published on the day the Government announced plans to table an amendment to the Online Safety Bill, which would give Ofcom more power as the regulator to demand platforms do more to combat the spread of abuse material – including developing new technologies to find and tackle it.

The NSPCC has found online child sex abuse in NI has risen by 141% in past four years - part of a 'tsunami' of such abuse right across the UK.The NSPCC has found online child sex abuse in NI has risen by 141% in past four years - part of a 'tsunami' of such abuse right across the UK.
The NSPCC has found online child sex abuse in NI has risen by 141% in past four years - part of a 'tsunami' of such abuse right across the UK.

Natalie Whelehan, NSPCC Northern Ireland’s Policy and Public Affairs Manager, said: “We are consistently seeing unprecedented increases in the level and scale of threat to our children’s safety online. We need our Government to urgently prioritise this issue and implement and fund the 2015 commissioned Online Safety Strategy and Action Plan and do everything in its power to strengthen the Online Safety Bill progressing in Westminster to give children the protections they need to prevent abuse from happening in the first place. We are calling on our Government to take immediate action to address this very serious threat to children and young people in Northern Ireland.”

Sir Peter Wanless, NSPCC Chief Executive, said: “Online grooming is taking place at unprecedented levels and only concerted action will turn the tide on this tsunami of preventable abuse.”

“The crucial Online Safety Bill is the opportunity to deliver the legislative change we urgently need to address head on these preventable crimes against children.” He added that it seems “increasingly clear” that the pandemic has resulted in a long-term increase in abuse and that government proposals “must go further” to tackline the abuse.

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Four in five (82%) of grooming cases last year were against girls, where the gender was known; 12 to 15-year-old girls made up 39% of all victims where the age and gender was recorded.

Abusers are contacting children on social media and gaming sites and coercing them to share sexualised photographs of themselves.

One 15-year-old girl who was groomed on multiple sites told Childline: “I’ve been chatting with this guy online who’s like twice my age. This all started on Instagram but lately all 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. Every time I did these things for him, he would ask for more and I felt like it was too late to back out.

“This whole thing has been slowly destroying me and I’ve been having thoughts of hurting myself.”