Published: Mon 25 Apr 2022
Written by: Lucy Watson, ITV News Correspondent
Online child sexual abuse is at record high levels, according to exclusive figures given to ITV News.
An Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) report says the greatest threat to children online is self-generated content where perpetrators groom and coerce children into creating images and videos of themselves. The offender records that content and shares it on the web.
The IWF, which searches and removes vile abuse, says it has seen an “explosion” in this type of crime over the past two years, with an increase of 374%.
This is partly down to Covid lockdowns, it said, when so many more people were online, but it is also down to the proliferation of social media and the changing trends of its use.
The IWF also reveals one in three reports of child sexual abuse on the internet involve 11 to 13-year-old girls - the largest group of people to suffer. But the fastest-growing group is seven to 10-year-olds.
Read more at ITV News.
Messaging app Telegram will deploy new tools to prevent the spread of images of child sexual abuse after teaming up with the Internet Watch Foundation.
After years of ignoring pleas to sign up to child protection schemes, the controversial messaging app Telegram has agreed to work with an internationally recognised body to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
The images that Nelson made have been linked back to real children around the world. In some cases, he then went on to encourage his clients to rape and sexually assault the youngsters.