Record images of sexually exploited children (Image: Getty)
The government is being urged to appoint a new minister to tackle the rising tide of child sex abuse as new figures show record numbers of online images of sexually exploited children.
Last week the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) – a charity that removes child abuse images – published new data revealing 2024 was the worst year on record for online child sexual abuse imagery, with nearly 300,000 web pages uncovered, each containing at least one, if not hundreds or thousands, of images and videos. This is an increase of 830 percent in the past decade.
Last night Simon Bailey, former National Police Chiefs’ Council lead on child protection said: “I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
The former police detective, and Chair of the International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute added: “We need a broad cross-government response if we are to stand any chance of tackling the scale of this threat and a new minister to oversee and drive the change. The scale of the abuse increase and harms being done are becoming more severe and lives being destroyed.”
He added that the govenrment needed to urgently act on the wide ranging recommendations laid out in the seven year, £200,000 Independent Inquirty into Child Sex Abuse, published in 2022. He said: “Every government department has a role to play in this, health and social care, education, the ministry of justice. They all have to look at how they can contribute and we need a joint ministerial board to look at all the recommendations made in the independent inquiry and a minister to be appointed to oversee and drive the change.”
Children ‘groomed, coerced and bribed for images’ (Image: Getty)
The IWF has written to Sir urging him to take action. They warn the new Online Safety Act will be a missed opportunity without his intervention.
It says social media platforms have the technical capacity to ensure child sexual abuse images are never downloaded by the public.
The new regulations leave “gaping loopholes for criminals to exploit” said IWF interim chief executive Derek Ray-Hill, as he urged Sir Keir to act in light of the escalating threat.
“The solutions are here, now. They aren’t pie-in-the-sky solutions for the future. They exist, and they are trusted. Big tech just needs to be instructed to switch them on,” he added.
Rani Govender, Policy Manager for Child Safety Online at the NSPCC, said: “We must always remember that within all this terrible material are innocent children who have been groomed, manipulated, and abused.”
In 2024, the IWF acted to remove images or videos of children suffering sexual abuse, or links to that content, on 291,270 webpages, which is the most child sexual abuse webpages ever discovered in its 29-year history.
Keir Starmer told to take ‘urgent action’ (Image: Getty)
A government spokesperson said: “Child sexual exploitation and abuse is despicable and has a devastating impact on victims.
“UK law is clear – child sexual abuse is illegal and social media is no exception.
“Companies must ensure criminal activity cannot proliferate on their sites.”
They explained that from March, under the Online Safety Act, companies will need to take robust action to tackle child abuse material when they become aware of it.
“If companies fail to act, Ofcom has robust enforcement powers including the ability to issue significant fines,” they added.
An Ofcom spokesperson said “The law says measures in our codes of practice must be technically feasible. However, we expect the vast majority of platforms will be able to take content down and we will hold them to account if they don’t.
“If a platform claims something isn’t technically feasible, we will investigate and it will need to explain to Ofcom why that is. If we find it is technically feasible, it’ll have to take content down.
“We’ve also been clear that we expect tech firms to invest in the development of new technologies to keep people safe.”
Girl trying to protect herself from violence (Image: Getty)