A report out today has found that Potential offenders were aged under 18 in more than half of all reported child abuse cases with most child sexual abuse offences committed by 14-year-olds
One third of abuse came from within the family with at least 32% of cases stemming from online sexual abuse.
While online cases contribute to the 52% of abuse by children aged 10 to 18, the report says the “growing and concerning trend” also includes serious sexual assaults, including rape.
Much of the blame is being put on the rise on a combination of mobile phone ownership and the availability of hardcore pornography.
In the North West, combined figures from Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire and Lancashire show 12,778 offences were recorded by police forces in 2022/23 – an increase of of 18% on the previous year.
Ian Critchley QPM, NPCC lead Child Abuse Protection and Investigation said:
“Child abuse is an appalling crime, and this analysis helps us understand more widely the growing challenges we are all facing nationally not least young people growing up today. We also know that sadly reported crime remains significantly lower than the actual crimes of child abuse that take place with the Independent Inquiry reporting 1 in 6 girls and 1 in 20 boys will be abused in childhood, an appalling statistic and one we must all seek to change. This analysis will help police and our partners develop and improve our prevention, disruption, and investigation of these appalling crimes against children. Whilst policing has made significant developments in its approach to tackling child sexual abuse this analysis enables us to review current approaches, continually adapting and developing our service and ensuring that the voices of children and victims are at the heart of everything we do.
“Our collective offer must be to prioritise prevention – we must stop abuse happening, preventing the lifelong physical and mental harm it causes. We must give confidence to victims to come forward whether abused yesterday or many years ago, confident that they will receive a service that is of the utmost professionalism wrapped in care and compassion and we must relentlessly bring more offenders of these abhorrent crimes to justice, whilst taking due care not to criminalise young people when it is not warranted.
“Tackling CSAE is a collaborative effort and requires police, partners and the public to work together to prevent harm, pursue offenders and protect children in a changing world.”
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.
