Ofcom urged to ‘significantly strengthen’ regulation as online grooming hits record-high

Online grooming crimes against children have increased by almost nine-fold in six years, reaching record-levels across the UK.

New data compiled by the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) showed more than 7,000 Sexual Communication with a Child offences were recorded by police last year, an increase of 89 per cent since 2017-18 when the offence first came into force.

The youngest victim of online grooming in 2023-24 was a five-year-old boy.

In Scotland, more than 3,000 online grooming crimes have been recorded by Police Scotland during the past five years. In 2023-2024, more than 670 offences were recorded, an increase of 13 per cent compared to the previous year.

The research showed Snapchat was the most common platform used to target children, responsible for almost half of the cases where the means of communication was disclosed.

It was followed by Meta platforms - WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram. Messaging app Kik ranked fifth and was responsible for five per cent of the cases.

In response, the NSPCC has called for more “ambitious regulation” from Ofcom to ensure platforms adopt a secure-by-design approach, claiming the regulator currently “puts too much focus on acting after harm has taken place”.

It has also urged the UK Government to improve the Online Safety Act, which became law a year ago, and strengthen legislation to ensure child sexual abuse is disrupted in private messages such as on Snapchat and WhatsApp.

Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, said: “One year since the Online Safety Act became law and we are still waiting for tech companies to make their platforms safe for children.

“We need ambitious regulation by Ofcom, who must significantly strengthen their current approach to make companies address how their products are being exploited by offenders.

“It is clear that much of this abuse is taking place in private messaging which is why we also need the UK Government to strengthen the Online Safety Act to give Ofcom more legal certainty to tackle child sexual abuse on the likes of Snapchat and WhatsApp.”

The new data comes after experts told Holyrood legislative change cannot come quickly enough to protect children from online harm.

The NSPCC’s Voice of Online Youth young people’s group was not surprised at the prevalence of Snapchat in offences.

Lidia, from Glasgow, said: “Snapchat has disappearing messages, and that makes it easier for people to hide things they shouldn't be doing.

“Another problem is that Snapchat has this feature where you can show your location to everyone. If you're not careful, you might end up showing where you are to people you don’t know, which is super risky.”

The 13-year-old added: “And honestly, not all the rules in Snapchat are strict, so some people take advantage of that to do bad things. Apps should have better ways for us to report bad things, and they should always get updated to protect us better with the latest security tech.”