Children Committing More Sex Offenses, Police Caution
A concerning and growing trend of offending, including serious sexual assaults like rape, has been documented by authorities.
According to a new report, police have noted an increase in child-on-child abuse, accounting for just over half of offenses in 2022. Violent porn and access to smartphones are partly to blame, police said.
In 2022, authorities recorded over 100,000 offenses, marking a 7.6 percent rise from 2021 and nearly quadruple what it was a decade ago.
The report also revealed that about 75 percent of child sexual abuse cases were committed directly against children. This includes sexual assault on a female (15 percent) and rape of a female under 16 (12 percent).
Half of the child abuse offenses involved a child aged 10 to 17 offending against other children, with 14 being the most common age.
Police condemned the “growing and concerning trend” of offending, which includes serious sexual assaults such as rape.
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Cases reported to the police are “heavily gendered” with males predominantly abusing females, the report said. The analysis warned about the impact of harmful and abusive pornography online that can be accessed by “anyone.”
On average, children first see online pornography at the age of 13, according to Ofcom figures, with nearly a quarter encountering it by age 11. One in 10 children first see online pornography as young as 9.
Online pornography services will be required to install “highly effective” age checks to protect children. Ofcom warned that “pornography is too readily accessible to children online.”
The police also reported a case of a 4-year-old child who uploaded an indecent image of a sibling online using a smartphone.
‘Appalling Statistic’
Mr. Ian Critchley, the national policing lead for child abuse protection and investigation, warned that the actual numbers of child abuse crimes are higher than those reported to police.
Mr. Critchley called it an “appalling statistic and one we must all seek to change.”
The National Crime Agency (NCA) has estimated that there are up to 830,000 adults in the UK who pose some degree of sexual risk to children.
The deputy director for child sexual abuse at the NCA, Wendy Hart, said that the severity of offending has increased.
“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,” she said.
The police also reported that the number of online sexual abuse incidents continues to grow and accounts for at least 32 percent of recorded cases, owing to “more and more smartphones and digital devices” being used to communicate, the report said.
The analysis also cited children’s increased exposure to the internet during national lockdowns in the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘Sextortion’
Perpetrators used deep fake technology and AI to create and share indecent images of children, the police said.
Another trend highlighted in the report is “sextortion,” which involves offenders blackmailing children and threatening them with exposure of their indecent images unless money is paid.
The police also warned about a threat to children by groups seeking to sexually exploit them. In this case, offenders offer children alcohol, drugs, and more recently vapes, to get control and carry out the abuse.
The report showed that family environments can also be a hotbed of sexual abuse, with over a third of sexual abuse contact crimes being carried out by people within the family.
