Child abuse images: Rise in recorded offences in Wales

Lockdown meant children were online more, and the effects are beginning to show, according to the Internet Watch Foundation

Police in Wales have recorded a 43% increase in offences involving child abuse images in the past five years.

There were more than 2,000 recorded crimes involving possession and sharing of indecent images last year.

Children as young as primary school age were victims, according to a Freedom of Information request to the four Welsh police forces.

Children's charity NSPCC wants improvements to the Online Safety Bill being discussed in the House of Lords.

More than 30,000 crimes involving the sharing and possession of indecent images of children were recorded across the UK last year. Of these, 2,061 were in Wales.

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The NSPCC is asking government to create a statutory child safety advocate, which would give children a voice and representation.

Its chief executive, Sir Peter Wanless, said the figures were "alarming" and the "tip of the iceberg".

Children are being contacted for indecent images on apps like Snapchat

There were increases in all four force areas.

The largest total number of offences was recorded by South Wales Police, up from 528 in 2016/17 to 789 five years later. The charity's research shows Snapchat is the platform offenders used most to share these images.

Girls were found to be the most at risk, forming 97% of child sexual abuse material shared online, according to the Internet Watch Foundation's most recent UK annual report.

Children between 11 and 13 were the most common victims, making up almost seven in 10 instances of sexual abuse imagery in 2021.

The IWF said the impact of lockdown on online sex crime is only now being revealed.

The number of primary school aged children found being coached to perform sexual acts online has also increased by more than 1,000% since the UK went into lockdown during the pandemic.

One per cent of the most recent sexual abuse imagery recorded by the IWF shows boys and of this 53% were suffering from the most severe type of abuse

Jacqueline Beauchere, global head of platform safety at Snapchat, said: "Any sexual abuse of children is abhorrent and illegal.

She said the company works with police, experts and industry partners to combat it and have extra precautions to make it hard for strangers to contact young users.

"If we proactively detect or are made aware of any sexual content exploiting minors, we immediately remove it, delete the account, and report the offender to authorities."