By Hannah Rodger
Westminster Correspondent
PAEDOPHILES are capitalising on the lockdown to abuse more children and circulate videos of their crimes online, MPs have been told.
Sexual predators who are in lockdown with children are taking advantage of the Government-mandated isolation period to commit more abuse, with officials preparing for a surge in reports as youngsters go back to school, a police chief said.
Police and charities say they are getting ready for an increase in the number of reports they receive about abuse, and expect to see a rise in new images and videos of children being abused as the quarantine continues.
Speaking during the
House of Commons Home Affairs Committee yesterday,
Robert Jones, of the National Crime Agency, said he was concerned about children being unable to report abuse due to schools and after school clubs being predominantly closed.
Mr Jones, who is the NCA’s director of threat leadership, told MPs: “I am concerned if people have been locked down with abusers. This by its very nature is a hidden crime.
A lot of image production is connected to familial abuse, let’s not forget that. A lot of the victims that are referred have been abused by people in positions of trust, or other family members.
“For that to filter through and get to us, children need access to a trusted channel of communication. As children return to school, I think
we’ll see more of that. As lockdown eases I think we’ll see more of that.”
Mr Jones added the NCA had tried to “get ahead”
of the rise in cases by
tackling well-known offenders “head-on”.
He said: We’ve done everything we can, including meeting, head-on, high-risk offenders during the lockdown. We’ve done 50 search warrants in the NCA alone over this lockdown, 52 arrests, and really gone for the people that we are really worried about.”
Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of the Internet Watch Foundation, also gave evidence to the committee, where she explained that in April 8.8million visits were recorded to a list of websites blocked by internet service providers for sharing child abuse images.
She said: “There’s no data from another period outside of lockdown to compare that to, but even so that was a worry in terms of the number. Based on our experiences there is often a time lag between images taken and them making their way and being circulated on the internet. So if you just look
at the overall trajectory, particularly self-generated content, we are expecting to see more of that content
start to show over the next few months. So yes, we are concerned we will see an increase.”
Stuart Allardyce, director of Stop it Now! Scotland, a charity that works to stop child abuse and talks directly to offenders, said the charity has seen a “significant” increase in the number of people accessing its services.
He said: “In March, we saw around 250 visitors per week from the UK to our
self-help resources for people worried about their own online offending behaviour. That number has grown to over 600 a week recently,
so a significant increase
since lockdown.”
Police Scotland launched the #GetHelpOrGetCaught campaign in April, encouraging people worried about their behaviour online to ask for help. This also prompted a surge in visits to the Stop it Now website. In the four weeks before the campaign launch, 60 people had accessed Get Help resources, compared to 185 during the campaign.
Mr Allardyce said: “Many people are spending more time online during lockdown, and many will be viewing more pornography – both legal and illegal.
“People need to know the huge harm done to children not only when child sexual abuse images are made, but also every time they are viewed. They also need to know about the significant consequences to themselves – these images are illegal
and viewers risk arrest, imprisonment and being put on the sex offenders register.
“That’s why it’s so important for people who notice their own online behaviour becoming more extreme or illegal to look for help to stop. Our confidential helpline and website has helped thousands of men in this situation across the years, and we’ve also helped their families understand what they can do to support their loved ones.”
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