Online porn blamed for rocketing number of sex crimes by under 18s

More than half of child abuse cases in England and Wales are now committed by other children, amid the online pornography epidemic.

The National Analysis of Police-Recorded Child Sexual Abuse & Exploitation Report found that 52 per cent of 106,984 offences recorded by 42 police forces in 2022 were committed by ten to 17-year-olds, at an average age of 14.

The report called it a “growing and concerning trend (previously thought to be a third) involving a wide range of offending” from sharing indecent images to rape.

‘Violent porn’

National Police Lead for Child Protection Ian Critchley said the problem is being exacerbated due to children’s accessibility to smartphones and the “ease in which violent pornography is accessible to boys”.

He said there is “a perception that is normalised behaviour and therefore that person can carry out that behaviour that they are seeing online in the most violent way against other peers as well”.

Writing in The Times, Janice Turner added: “We know what happens if half of 13-year-olds view graphic images before their first kiss, when a global porn industry has impunity to platform violence, rape and adult-child grooming porn” and “society shirks from creating barriers to keep porn billionaires from monetising our kids”.

Age verification

In December, Ofcom published draft guidance to make it much harder for under-18s to access pornography websites, in keeping with the requirements of the new Online Safety Act.

The guidelines, which are open to consultation until March 2024, do not recommend specific age-verification systems but include those that “could be considered highly effective” such as facial technology combined with credit card checks.

In contrast, Ofcom emphasised that “self-declaration of age”, “general terms, disclaimers or warnings” would fall foul of its requirements. Firms that fail to comply could be fined up to £18m or 10% of their global annual revenue.