2,600 online child sex crimes recorded in Wales since start of ‘cyber flag’ in 2015

Andrew Burrows NSPCC Head of Child Safety Online Policy

• Welsh police forces record 566 online child sex offences in 2019/20, more than double that of 2015/16
• Contacts to Childline about grooming went up during lockdown
• As Parliament returns, the charity calls on the UK Government to make Online Harms legislation a priority this autumn

Police in Wales have logged more than 2,600 online child sex offences in Wales since it became mandatory for forces to record a ‘cyber flag’ in 2015 – whether a crime involved the internet.

In the past year (2019/20) Welsh police forces recorded 566 online sex crimes – more than double that of when the ‘cyber flag’ was introduced in 2015/16. Since then, in total, there have been 2,622 recorded crimes in Wales that had a cyber element such as grooming, sexual assault and rape.

While the Freedom of Information data does not include the lockdown period, risks to children online increased and Childline counselling sessions on grooming went up.

Welsh Government took positive steps forward, introducing an online safety action plan following calls from NSPCC Cymru in 2016, and the charity says the devolved government must continue to commit to keeping children safe online, reviewing and updating the action plan annually.

It’s also increasing pressure on the UK Government, which it says urgently needs to push forward with the Online Harms Bill, which would place a legal Duty of Care on tech firms to protect children, enforced by an independent regulator.

The NSPCC is calling on the Government to publish its final plans before the end of the year, and get an Online Harms Bill on the statute book by the end of 2021.

Olivia’s* daughter Emma* was groomed and sexually exploited through an online game called Movie Star Planet from when she was six-years-old.

The abuser gained her trust then threatened her into sending him and other adults sexually explicit images and committing sexual acts for two years.

“He would threaten to expose her if she didn’t do as she was told, that he would even put her in a “shallow grave” or kill us, her parents.

“As she got older, she is now 14, she began to struggle. Her behaviour changed, she became angry, depressed and would cry without really knowing why.

“She found it incredibly hard to make herself go into school and would ring me in tears, not knowing why she couldn’t go through the door. It was horrible, I felt so helpless when she talked about self-harming and not wanting to go on living.”

Data obtained by the NSPCC reveals 10,391 crimes were recorded by all 46 forces across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands for 2019/20. It’s the first time police logged over 10,000 online child sex offences in 12 months.

The offences UK-wide increased by 16% from the previous year, taking the total number of recorded offences in the five years since it became mandatory to record whether a crime involved the internet to more than 37,000.

However, this figure is likely to significantly understate the true extent of the problem due to potential under-recording by police forces of the role of the internet and variation in the way forces log these crimes.

Andy Burrows, NSPCC Head of Child Safety Online Policy, said: “These figures suggest that online abuse was already rising before lockdown, and the risks to children appear to have spiked significantly since.

“It is now almost 17 months since the Government’s original proposals for social media regulation were published and children continue to face preventable harm online.

“At the Hidden Harms Summit, the Prime Minister signalled he was determined to act. That’s why he needs to prioritise making progress on a comprehensive Online Harms Bill this Autumn, and pass legislation by the end of 2021, that sees tech firms held criminally and financially accountable if they put children at risk.”

The NSPCC has been campaigning for a Duty of Care on tech firms since the launch of its Wild West Web campaign in 2018.

The Government published the Online Harms White Paper in April 2019 but are still yet to produce the final consultation response.

The charity previously published a set of set of regulatory proposals setting out how social media regulation should work, called Taming the Wild West Web.

At the end of the month, they will set-out further proposals explaining what powers the independent regulator needs in order to protect children online.

Adults concerned about a child online can contact the NSPCC helpline confidentially for advice and support on 0808 800 5000 or email help@nspcc.org.uk.

For further information please contact the NSPCC Cymru/Wales press office on 029 2010 8159 or email walespressoffice@nspcc.org.uk.