The NSPCC obtained data through the Freedom of Information Act from police forces in England and Wales, and said 30,925 offences involving obscene images of children were reported in 2021–22, the highest number ever recorded and a 66 percent increase over the last five years.
In their report, the NSPCC said virtual reality technology was documented eight times by police forces in crime reports from those years. This is the first time such technology has been mentioned specifically.She said he sent them on to his friends and that she was then blackmailed and manipulated into sending more images, which were shared on social media.
Sir Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, said: “These new figures are incredibly alarming but reflect just the tip of the iceberg of what children are experiencing online.”
‘Online Sexual Abuse Risks Becoming Normalised’
Wanless said: “We hear from young people who feel powerless and let down as online sexual abuse risks becoming normalised for a generation of children.”
He called on the government to create the post of child safety advocate who would “stand up for children and families,” and he said: “It would be inexcusable if in five years’ time we are still playing catch-up to pervasive abuse that has been allowed to proliferate on social media.”
Wanless said the government’s proposed Online Safety Bill needs to make sure abuse is “systemically” prevented.
The NSPCC also called on Meta “to pause plans to roll out default end-to-end encryption of Facebook and Instagram messenger services”—which they said would make it impossible “to identify grooming and the sharing of child sexual abuse images.”‘Truly Sinister Application’ of New Technology
She said: “New products designed with benign intent can become tools of truly sinister application for abusers. For example, a new product that enables ‘bare hands tactility’ allows sexual predators to feel and be felt by their victims, without the need for physical contact.”“Virtual reality platforms are in scope and will be forced to keep children safe from exploitation and remove vile child abuse content. If companies fail to tackle this material effectively, they will face huge fines and could face criminal sanctions against their senior managers,” he added.
A Meta spokesman told The Epoch Times: “This horrific content is banned on our apps, and we report instances of child sexual exploitation to the National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children.”
He said: “We lead the industry in the development and use of technology to prevent and remove this content, and we work with the police, child safety experts and industry partners to tackle this societal issue. Our work in this area is never done, and we’ll continue to do everything we can to keep this content off our apps.”
