Access to violent porn linked to rise in sexual crimes committed by children

A rise in the number of children committing sexual offences has been partly fuelled by violent porn and access to smartphones, a police chief has warned.

Half of child abuse offences reported to police in England and Wales in 2022 involved a child aged 10 to 17 as a suspect or perpetrator, up from a third in 2013, in what police called “a growing and concerning trend”.

This included what is classed as “exploratory online sexual behaviours”, but also serious sexual assaults including rape.

A landmark report published on Wednesday showed that the most common offences committed by 10 to 17-year-olds were sexual assault on a female (15%), rape of a female under 16 (12%), and taking, making or sharing indecent images.

Ian Critchley, national policing lead for child abuse protection and investigation, said: “This is predominantly a gender-based crime of boys committing offences against girls.

“I think that is being exacerbated by the accessibility to violent pornography and the ease in which violent pornography is accessible to boys and therefore, a perception that is normalised behaviour and therefore that person can carry out that behaviour that they are seeing online in the most violent way against other peers as well.

“Clearly the accessibility to smartphones has just rocketed not just in relation to 11 to 16-year-olds, but in relation to under-10s as well, that accessibility has really exacerbated that and I think this is a debate that does need to be had in our society.”

The rise in offences committed by children between 2013 and 2022 saw a rise in direct physical abuse as well as crimes involving indecent images.

But he said police do not want to criminalise a whole generation of young people, and said officers will not necessarily take action if a consenting couple share indecent images with each other.

Data from 42 police forces in England and Wales showed that a total of 106,984 child sexual abuse offences were reported to police in 2022, up 7.6% on the previous year and up from just over 20,000 recorded in 2013.

Researchers found that 73% of the crimes were committed directly against children, while the remainder involved indecent images.

Around a third of all crimes committed directly against children involved abuse within families, and experts believe it will take years for the full scale of abuse committed during the pandemic to become known.

On average, victims of this kind of abuse take 17 years to report it to police, and it is feared that many crimes are going unreported.

The report said: “This challenging time of isolation and lockdowns meant there were fewer opportunities for authorities, teachers or friends to identify abuse signs.

“It’s highly likely that many of these crimes are going unreported and hidden for years.”

The National Crime Agency estimates that around 830,000 adults in the UK pose a sexual threat to children, and the Independent Inquiry (into Child Sexual Abuse) said that one in six girls and one in 20 boys will be abused in childhood.

Abuse by gangs, ranging from sharing images to physical abuse, made up 5% of reported cases, while 32% were online sexual abuse.

Researchers also found that some perpetrators are using artificial intelligence (AI) and “deep fake” technology to create indecent images of children.

This includes paedophiles using “nudification” techniques on existing real pictures to make the victim appear naked, as well as entirely AI generated images.

Regionally, most child abuse cases were reported in the North West of England, where 19.3% of offences were recorded.

However, the force with the greatest number was Britain’s largest, the Metropolitan Police, followed by West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.

Wendy Hart, deputy director for Child Sexual Abuse at the National Crime Agency, said: “As this report shows, the scale of child sexual abuse continues to increase year on year.

“It highlights that this is a largely hidden crime, and the NCA estimates that there are up to 830,000 adults in the UK that pose some degree of sexual risk to children.

“We also know from our collective analysis that the severity of offending has increased, as have the complexities faced by law enforcement in tackling it.

“We are now seeing hyper-realistic images and videos of abuse being created using artificial intelligence, for example, while the rollout of end-to-end encryption by technology platforms makes it a lot more difficult for us to protect children.

“Alongside our policing partners and Ofcom, we are working closely with industry to ensure platforms have adequate safety measures designed in, and that our collective ability to tackle the threat keeps pace with technology.

“With over half of reported crimes involving child on child abuse, there has never been a greater need for education in this space.

“Children, parents, carers and professionals can find information, resources and advice produced by the NCA’s dedicated education programme at www.thinkuknow.co.uk.”

Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of anti-abuse charity the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), said: “These are not crimes that happen somewhere else, or to someone else’s children.

“They can happen in any household, to any family, to any child, and that is devastating.

“Having an internet connection and a webcam without supervision is like leaving a door open for the world’s worst predators to approach, speak to, groom, and ensnare your children.

“And those predators are taking advantage of it on a monumental, industrial scale.”