CHAPTER 3: THREATS
Sexual offences and abuse
3.28.
The overall decrease in crime recorded by the CSEW also masks a rapid increase in
sexual offences, which rose in the year to September 2014 by 22% (partly, it is
thought, because of efforts to reduce under-recording).
3.29.
The problem of child sexual abuse is said by the National Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Children to be much bigger than shown in official statistics, as most such
crimes are neither detected nor reported. A major study estimated that almost 1 in 20
11-17 year olds, and 1 in 200 under-11s, had experienced “contact sexual abuse” by
other children or adults.19
3.30.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre [CEOP], an NCA command, has
identified key threats including the online proliferation of indecent images of children,
online sexual exploitation (or grooming), self-generation of indecent images and
transnational child abuse.
3.31.
CEOP estimates that there were some 50,000 individuals in the UK engaged during
2012 in downloading and sharing indecent images of children, often using
decentralised or peer-to-peer (or P2P) networks. The volume of extreme images has
grown exponentially. The dark net, and the live streaming of child abuse, generally
from the developing world and in exchange for payment, have been identified as new
ways that UK offenders are sexually abusing children.20
3.32.
Grooming is another crime greatly facilitated by the internet. Predatory paedophiles
no longer need to hang around the school gate. Social media, instant messaging and
chat are all used, with a significant proportion of reports involving multiple online
environments. CEOP comments:
“The restrained influencing of a child over several months has been largely
replaced by rapid escalation to threats, intimidation and coercion ... a symptom
of the availability of thousands of potential victims online at any one time.”21
It can lead both to on-line offending (e.g. deceiving children into sending indecent
images of themselves, or engaging in sexual chat or sexual activity over webcam) and
to off-line offending such as meetings for sexual purposes. The director of Europol
has publicly stated that “anonymity provided by TOR [see 4.62(c) below] is used by
people to abuse hundreds of thousands of children throughout Europe with very little
fear of detection and prosecution”.22
19
20
21
22
L. Radford et al, “Child abuse and neglect in the UK today”, National Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children (2011), Table 1.
CEOP, Threat assessment of child sexual exploitation and abuse, (June 2013). In J. Bartlett, The
Dark Net, (2014), at chapter 4 there is a revealing interview with a paedophile who was drawn to
increasingly extreme material by the ease and anonymity of online access.
Ibid.
R. Wainwright, “Cybercrime and the challenges for law enforcement”, address to LIBE Committee of
the European Parliament, (11 November 2014).
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