Online Child Abuse Rises 26% in England, Police Demand Action

Published: 11 December 2025. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online.

Online child sexual abuse in England and Wales has surged by 26% in just one year, alarming authorities and prompting urgent calls for stronger safeguards. Recent figures from police show that 51,672 online crimes were recorded in 2024, representing 42% of the total 122,768 child sexual exploitation offences. The rise has sparked warnings that social media companies must take proactive steps to prevent children from being exploited online.

Becky Riggs, acting chief constable of Staffordshire Police and National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection, emphasized that technology could help prevent abuse at its source. She urged tech firms to employ artificial intelligence tools to automatically identify and block indecent images before they are uploaded. Riggs also stressed that devices used by children should include built-in protections, allowing access only to safe platforms and websites.

Police data revealed that half of all online offences involved child-on-child activity, with perpetrators aged 10 to 17. Sharing indecent imagery accounted for 64% of these crimes. The rapid increase in online abuse highlights how digital spaces have become a primary arena for exploitation, a trend that continues to grow despite existing safeguarding measures.

Gareth Edwards, head of the vulnerability knowledge and practice programme at the National Centre for Violence Against Women and Girls, described online crimes as the “fastest-growing threat” to children. He noted that it remains unclear whether the surge is due to increased reporting following the upcoming Online Safety Act or genuine growth in offending. Other research, including from the Youth Endowment Fund, supports the view that online abuse is expanding significantly.

Emerging threats include “sextortion,” in which predators blackmail teenagers by threatening to release sexual images. While difficult to quantify, police and child protection experts warn that this form of coercion is becoming more common among vulnerable adolescents. Anna Edmundson, head of policy at the NSPCC, urged the government to commission a national prevalence study to better understand the full extent of online harm to children and young people.

Snapchat emerged as the platform with the highest proportion of reports, representing 54% of recorded online exploitation cases, or 11,912 incidents. WhatsApp, whose encrypted messages make monitoring more challenging, accounted for 8% (1,870 incidents), while Instagram contributed another 8% (1,705 incidents). Facebook, whose user base is older, showed fewer cases. Riggs noted disparities in reporting and monitoring among platforms, with TikTok and X providing fewer reports to authorities despite proactive safeguarding measures on some platforms.

The NSPCC stated that two recently published reports provide the most comprehensive picture of child sexual abuse and exploitation in England and Wales. However, officials acknowledge that only one in ten crimes are formally reported, leaving many victims unprotected and unseen by authorities.

Riggs concluded that the evidence makes one trend unmistakably clear: online abuse is expanding rapidly, and all sectors of society—including policing, government, tech companies, and civil society—must act decisively to prevent harm before it reaches a child. The reports also covered group-based abuse, including grooming gangs, showing that 3.6% of offences in 2024 involved group-based offending, with 17% committed by grooming gangs, 32% by family members, and 24% child-on-child.

Demographic data showed that 78.03% of offenders were White British, compared with 74.4% of the UK population, while 3.94% were Pakistani, compared with 2.7% of the population. These statistics highlight complex patterns of abuse that require targeted intervention and prevention strategies.

Support is available for children and adults affected by abuse. In the UK, the NSPCC offers confidential support on 0800 1111 for children and 0808 800 5000 for adults. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) provides guidance for adult survivors at 0808 801 0331. Internationally, similar helplines include Childhelp in the US and Kids Helpline in Australia, alongside the Blue Knot Foundation for adult survivors.

The surge in online child sexual abuse underscores the urgent need for stronger regulatory oversight and innovative technological safeguards. As digital platforms continue to grow, protecting children from exploitation must remain an immediate priority for all stakeholders. Without swift and coordinated action, online abuse will continue to threaten the safety and wellbeing of the UK’s most vulnerable young people.