'Urgent need' to combat online child sexual abuse, Angela Constance says

There is an “urgent need for education and intervention” to tackle the growing rate of cybercrime targeting children, Angela Constance has said.

In her speech at Holyrood’s 2025 Public Sector Cyber Scotland conference in Edinburgh, the justice secretary has addressed the rise of child sexual abuse content being spread online.

She said: “We know that cybercrime does not only target large organisations but individuals, especially young people are disproportionately affected. In Scotland at least 20 per cent of all recorded sexual crimes involve the internet, with victims and perpetrators often being young and known to each other.

“Sex, torture, online grooming and the distribution of indecent images are on the rise fuelled by the widespread use of social media and mobile technology. Alarmingly young people can also become unwitting participants in cybercrime, highlighting the urgent need for education and intervention by our staff and workers who support young people.”

Constance's comments come amidst warnings from campaigners on the fast rise in online attacks targeting children. In December, the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute found more than 150,000 children in Scotland were likely to have been sexually abused online across 2023/24 – a figure 70 times higher than the number of online sexual crimes against children recorded by the police.

Over the past year, both the UK and Scottish governments have started rolling out measures to combat the dangers posed by online tools. Most recently, the UK Government announced it was introducing pioneering legislation to ban the use of AI tools for child abuse imagery.

However, ministers’ actions to tackle the online threat have caused concern among stakeholders, who argue they not go far enough. In particular, the UK Government’s landmark Online Safety Act, currently being implemented by Ofcom, has faced claims that it is not fit for purpose.

Constance added: “I suppose like most parents, I have a growing, ongoing anxiety about the wonders of technology and opportunities that that opens up for our young people, but also the dangers. It is something that we work on on a cross-government basis. I work closely with cabinet colleagues in social policy, we work on combating violence against women and girls, and that work has to start and does start in schools and actually engaging appropriately at a very young level.

“There's also the work that we have to do across the education system so young people know how to keep themselves safe from perpetrators.”

She also stressed that international intelligence sharing has never been more crucial in the face of the escalating global threat posed by cybercrime: “Cybercriminals are constantly developing new methods and tools, making it difficult for us to stay ahead of their tactics and [it] often involves perpetrators and victims from different countries, complicating jurisdiction and law enforcement efforts.”

She continued: “Our approach must go beyond enforcement to include, for example, enhancing data collection and research to better understand the evolving nature of cybercrime, strengthening partnerships between governments, law enforcement agencies and academia to foster innovation in cyber security [and] ensuring our legal frameworks remain robust and adaptable to technological advancements.

 “We all need to work together to create a digital future that's safe and that's secure for everyone and with our combined efforts we can ensure that technology remains a force for good and a source of progress.”