Child sexual abuse in the UK is soaring, police have said, with 1,000 paedophile suspects being arrested each month and the number of children being rescued from harm rising by 50% in the last five years.

The National Crime Agency said the growth in offending across the UK was driven by technology and linked to the radicalisation of offenders in online forums, encouraging people to view images of child sexual abuse by reassuring them it was normal.

Most contact with children happened on mainstream social media platforms, with algorithms pushing paedophilic material to people who have shown a previous interest in it.

The significant increase in every measure “really worries us”, said Rob Jones, the NCA’s director general of operations.

Leads about people interested in sexually abusing children had risen tenfold in a decade, he said, with 1,200 children a month being safeguarded.

  • Rioting Pacifist@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    ·
    13 days ago

    Most contact with children happened on mainstream social media platforms, with algorithms pushing paedophilic material to people who have shown a previous interest in it.

    What if we lived in a society which offered these people counciling instead of CSAM

        • village604@adultswim.fan
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          12 days ago

          And the numbers are definitely higher than that, because most people aren’t going to admit they’re pedophiles to a survey.

          I just don’t get it. At 23 I had to break up with my 18yo girlfriend after like a month because “awesome, 18 year old tail” very quickly became, “she’s still a child, I feel gross.”

        • couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          12 days ago

          Well we’d have to know how many hours it takes to ‘turn’ a pedophile

          My guess is it’s about as difficult as it is to turn a heterosexual person gay