A CHARITY has revealed a rise in child abuse image crimes, as it pleads for amendments to a government Bill.

More than 3,380 child abuse image crimes were recorded by police in Sussex over the last five years, new NSPCC research reveals.

Results from a Freedom of Information request show the number of offences relating to possessing, taking, making and distributing child abuse material in Sussex peaked at 571 in 2020/21, up 16 per cent from 2016/17.

Further requests to FOI found offences recorded by police UK-wide passed 100,000 in five years, with more than 25,000 crimes last year - up 37 per cent since 2016/17.

The NSPCC previously warned the pandemic had created a "perfect storm" for grooming and abuse online.

The charity said that behind every offence could be multiple victims and images, and children will continue to be at risk of an unprecedented scale of abuse unless the draft legislation is "significantly strengthened".

It said social media is being used by groomers as a conveyor belt to produce and share child abuse images on an industrial scale.

It added that the issue of young people being groomed into sharing images of their own abuse has become pervasive.

The child protection organisation is urging Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries to strengthen the Online Safety Bill, so it disrupts the production and spread of child abuse material on social media.

Ben, whose name has been changed for his protection, was 14 when he was tricked on Facebook into thinking he was speaking to a female friend of a friend who turned out to be a man.

Using threats and blackmail the man coerced Ben into sending images and performing sex acts live on Skype. The images and videos were shared with five other men who then bombarded Ben with further demands.

His mother, Rachel, whose name has also been changed, said: “The abuse Ben suffered had a devastating impact on our family. It lasted two long years, leaving him suicidal.

“It should not be so easy for an adult to meet and groom a child on one site then trick them into live streaming their own abuse on another app, before sharing the images with like-minded criminals at the click of a button.

“Social media sites should have to work together to stop this abuse happening in the first place, so other children do not have to go through what Ben did.”

The charity’s online safety experts said the Online Safety Bill currently fails to address how offenders organise across social media, does not effectively tackle abuse in private messaging and fails to hold top managers liable for harm or give children a voice to balance the power of industry.

NSPCC chief executive Sir Peter Wanless said: “The staggering amount of child sexual abuse image offences is being fuelled by the ease with which offenders are able to groom children across social media to produce and share images on an industrial scale.

“The government recognises the problem and has created a landmark opportunity with the Online Safety Bill.

“But the legislation needs strengthening in clear and specific ways if it is to fundamentally address the complex nature of online abuse and prevent children from coming to avoidable harm.”

The NSPCC’s five-point plan lays out where the Online Safety Bill must be strengthened to:

  • Disrupt well-established grooming pathways: The Bill needs to be strengthened to require platforms to explicitly risk assess for cross platform harms.
  • Tackle how offenders use social media to organise abuse
  • Put a duty on every social media platform to have a named manager responsible for children’s safety
  • Give the regulator more effective powers to combat abuse in private messaging
  • Give children a funded voice to fight for their interests

The charity is asking supporters to sign an open letter to Nadine Dorries asking her to make sure children are at the heart of the Online Safety Bill.

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