MORE than 5,000 online grooming offences have been recorded by the police in England and Wales in the last 18 months, with West Mercia Police recording 140 of these offences, writes Eve Watson.
There has been a 200 per cent rise in recorded use of Instagram to target and abuse children.
The data obtained from 39 of the 43 forces in England and Wales shows that in the latest six month period, girls aged 12 to 15 were most likely to be targeted by groomers.
The NSPCC is urging ministers to bring in statutory regulation to enforce a legal duty of care to children on social networks, backed by hefty fines if they fail.
Peter Wanless, NSPCC chief executive said: “These figures are overwhelming evidence that keeping children safe cannot be left to social networks.
“We cannot wait for the next tragedy before tech companies are made to act. It is hugely concerning to see the sharp spike in grooming offences on Instagram and it is vital that the platform designs basic protection more carefully into the service it offers young people.”
Emily was 13 when she was groomed online by a 24-year-old man, who she met in person due to a mutual friend, and he added her on Facebook and Snapchat.
Emily said: “It escalated very quickly from there.”
Texts were exchanged and quickly became sexual, leading to photos and videos.
He arranged to pick her up after school and took her somewhere quiet in the woods.
“He drove me in the direction of home straight afterwards, refusing to even talk, and then kicked me out of the car at the traffic lights.
“I was bleeding and crying.
“This was my first sexual experience.”
Emily’s mother Wendy added: “We felt as though we had failed as parents – we knew about these social media sites, we thought we were doing everything we could to ensure our children’s safety when they were online, but we still couldn’t protect Emily.
“Somebody has got to take responsibility for what happens to children on their platforms. Simply put, if social media didn’t exist, this never would have happened to Emily.”
Police revealed records showed Instagram was the most used method for groomers at 32 per cent, then Facebook with 23 per cent followed by Snapchat in 14 per cent of those instances.
The NSPCC has a ‘Tame the Wild Wild West web’ campaign. Visit https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-we-do/campaigns/wild-west-web to sign the petition.
