A “shocking” number of under 10s are being manipulated into performing sexual acts online, as experts discover more child sexual abuse imagery online than ever before.
New data from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) today shows a dramatic rise in the number of webpages on the open internet showing children under 10 being groomed, manipulated, or coerced into performing sexually by a predator.
The Government said the findings are “alarming” and warned that the planned roll out of end-to-end encryption on Facebook Messenger will have a “catastrophic” effect on law enforcement’s ability to bring perpetrators to justice.
The IWF has found there is now more child sexual abuse imagery being discovered on the open internet than ever before – with almost every webpage (92%) it worked to remove in 2023 including “self-generated” material extorted from children who have been groomed or coerced by predators using webcams.
Of the sites containing “self-generated” imagery, more than one in five (21%, or 54,250 webpages) contain the most severe abuse (known as Category A). This can include penetration, bestiality, and sexual torture.
Younger children are also at more risk of grooming and abuse, with the data showing a dramatic rise in the number of images or videos featuring under 10s where they have been coerced into performing sexually via a webcam or handheld device.
Against this backdrop, the IWF says all tech companies must play their part in making the internet hostile to groomers and abusers, and warns it is “utterly incomprehensible” that Meta is choosing to introduce end-to-end encryption to Facebook’s Messenger service.
This move will disable its existing measures for detecting and preventing the spread of child sexual abuse and make children less safe at a time when more should be done to improve safety.
In December, Meta announced it intends to roll out end-to-end encryption on its platforms, beginning with Facebook Messenger.
The IWF, which is the UK’s front line against child sexual abuse imagery online, says that with more child sexual abuse being discovered online than ever before, companies must be proactive in detecting it and helping to be part of the solution.
According to US hotline NCMEC (National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children), Meta reported more than 20 million incidents of people sharing child sexual abuse imagery on Facebook Messenger in 2022.
End-to-end encryption will mean Meta’s current apparatus for detecting known child sexual abuse imagery will be rendered useless and the company will be unable to spot criminal material being spread through its channels.
The IWF says introducing this technology without first putting in place a solution to prevent the abuse of its service will provide a safe space for criminals to spread abuse imagery with impunity.
Susie Hargreaves OBE, Chief Executive of the IWF, said:
“The imagery extorted or coerced from primary school-aged children is now finding its way onto the most extreme, dedicated child sexual abuse sites in shocking numbers.
“What starts in a child’s bedroom, over a webcam, is shared, traded, and harvested by committed and determined sexual predators. The IWF is seeing the results in unprecedented numbers. These criminals are ruthless.
“Now, with so many organisations looking to do the right thing in the light of new regulations in the UK, it is incomprehensible that Meta is deciding to look the other way and offer criminals a free pass to further share and spread abuse imagery in private and undetected.
“Decisions like this, as well as Apple opting to drop plans for client-side scanning to detect the sharing of abuse, are baffling given the context of the spread of this imagery on the wider web.
“Children are falling victim like never before. There really has never been a worse time to be a child on the internet, and Meta’s decision to bring in end-to-end encryption appears to be wilfully making this worse, not better, ignoring the evidence, and rewarding criminals with safe spaces at children’s expense.”
