One child per classroom has received nude or semi-nude image from an adult, NSPCC survey has found

• Survey of nearly 40,000 children asked about online risks.
• One in 25 primary school children surveyed has been sent or shown a naked or semi-naked image by an adult.
• NSPCC launches petition calling on the UK Government to introduce tough regulation for social networks.
• Charity warns social networks are a gateway for child abuse.
• The Welsh Government has published online its online safety action plan, which NSPCC Cymru/Wales has long campaigned for.

Thursday 30^th August

A NEW UK-wide NSPCC survey has found that on average one child per primary school class has received a naked or semi-naked image online from an adult.

According to the largest-ever survey of children’s experiences online compiled by the NSPCC and the London Grid for Learning, one in every 50 school children has sent a nude or semi-nude image to an adult.

The NSPCC’s #WildWestWeb campaign is calling on the UK Government to create an independent regulator for social networks, to force platforms to proactively detect groomers using their sites.

In a survey of nearly 40,000 children, the NSPCC asked young people aged seven to 16 about the risks they face when using the internet.

The first snapshot of the survey findings, Children Sending and Receiving Images, is published today and highlights the dangers children are exposed to.

This follows Freedom of Information (FOI) requests from the NSPCC, which revealed there were more than 3,000 offences recorded in Wales and England within the first year of the introduction of the offence of sexual communication with a child.

A total of 274 offences were recorded across the four Welsh police forces, with more than half of the crimes logged by South Wales Police – 158.

There were 53 in North Wales and 44 in the Gwent force area, while data supplied by Dyfed-Powys Police over a six month period saw 19 offences recorded.

Although Welsh grooming offences were recorded on 23 different platforms, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat were the top three most-commonly used, with more than 120 taking place using those alone.

Regarding the survey, children were asked whether an adult had ever sent or shown them a naked or semi-naked picture or video on an app, site or game.

One girl aged nine to 10, said: “A complete stranger asked me to take my clothes off and send him a picture…

“When I deleted the game, I went on another site and the same person asked me to have sex with him, I told him to ‘back off’ and then deleted that game.

“I have seen this person on many sites that I play, and I decided to just block him.”

At secondary school even more children reported being targeted by adults sending or showing them nude or semi-nude images, with one in 20 children aged between 12 and 16 saying they had received such an image.

Children said the problem was not limited to strangers contacting them, and some said they had been sent images by adults that they know.

A boy aged 14 to 15, said: “My coach sent me a video of Santa stripping naked.”

Others reported that the exchange of sexual images, often known as sexting, is becoming normalised, and one pupil aged 12 to 13, said: “A girl from my primary [was] sending half naked pictures because it’s what everyone does.”

The Welsh Government has recently published an online safety action plan, which focuses on the education of children and young people in Wales.

NSPCC Cymru/Wales has long called for the creation of this strategy and will continue to work with the government to put a significant focus on internet safety across Wales.

It is also hugely important that Welsh ministers continue to work with their UK colleagues on regulation of social networks.

Peter Wanless, the NSPCC’s chief executive, said: “Grooming can no longer be shrugged off as secondary to other online crimes.

“It is happening now, it is happening to very young children, it is happening so frequently that it’s becoming normalised, and it is not only coming from adult strangers, but also from known adults. Social networks have become a gateway for child abuse.

“The NSPCC has launched a petition calling on UK Government’s digital secretary Jeremy Wright and home secretary Said David to put an end to the Wild West Web.

“We need tough regulation of social networks to make sure there are fundamental protections for children in place whatever sites they’re using.”

The petition can be found here:http://bit.ly/2BTX0Bm.