The National Crime Agency (NCA) reports crackdown on pedophiles
According to a new report from a key government agency in the United Kingdom, child sex abuse on the internet has exploded to unprecedented levels over the past five years.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) said on Monday that over 82,000 child sex abuse images had been referred to the body the previous year, seeing an increase of 700 percent from 2012
The NCA says that a recent week-long crackdown on online child sex offenders in the UK saw more than 130 suspects, including children’s entertainers, an ex-police officer, and teachers.
The agency also added that 165 children were saved in that period.
PressTV reports: Rob Jones, a director at the NCA, said more and more people across the UK were using the dark web on the internet and technologies like end-to-end encryption to evade detection while harming children.
“We are seeing an increase in the number of sophisticated offenders using the dark web to groom and harm children on the mainstream internet,” said Jones.
The police and government have said that at least 80,000 people in Britain are estimated to pose a sexual threat to children online.
Surge in online child sexual abuse images in the UK: The government must urgently set clear legal standards for social media & web platforms, & hold companies to account if they fail to protect children from online abuse, @ECPATUK tells @TRF_Storieshttps://t.co/yKjFcRfS8h
— Every Child Protected Against Trafficking (@ECPATUK) September 3, 2018
The new data has stoked fears about the growing sexual exploitation and enslavement of children via technology both in the United Kingdom and around the world.
David Westlake, head of the anti-slavery charity International Justice Mission, said very young children were becoming victims of a “deeply disturbing global crime.”
“These latest figures from the NCA should be a wake-up call in highlighting how serious the problem of online sexual exploitation of children is,” said Westlake.