Over 400 Scottish children suffer online sexual abuse every day

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Alarming news statistics have revealed around 150,000 children in Scotland have been subjected to at least one form of online sexual abuse in the past year - enough to fill Hampden stadium almost three times over.

This amounts to average of over 400 Scottish cases every day which is more than 70 times higher than the number of cyber-enabled sexual crimes against children officially recorded by police.

The new estimates come from the Childlight Global Child Safety Institute, which is headquartered at the University of Edinburgh, and established by the Human Dignity Foundation. Childlight says police only see "the tip of the iceberg" and are calling on more focus on prevention from policy makers to "end the pandemic".

Childlight’s Director of Data, Professor Deborah Fry, says the research should be useful to policy makers and practitioners. She added:“We know from all the research we’ve done that many children will never tell anyone and the abuse will remain hidden.”

Online child sexual exploitation and abuse can take many forms, including sexual extortion, where predators blackmail victims, demanding money to keep images private, and A.I. generated deepfake images. It also includes non-consensual taking, sharing or exposure to sexual images and videos.

Based on a representative sample of men from the UK, Childlight estimates over 76,000 men in Scotland have deliberately viewed child sexual abuse material online at some point in their adulthood.

While nearly 100,000 Scottish men will have flirted or had sexual conversations with a child under 18 online, 37,000 Scottish men have engaged in sexually explicit webcamming with a child under the age of 18, and 53,000 Scottish men – have paid for online sexual interactions, images or videos involving children under the age of 18.

And, these figures are likely to be hugely underestimated as they rely on men openly sharing their behaviours online.

Childlight credits Police Scotland for playing a vital role in holding perpetrators to account and preventing further abuse against children. Alexander McCartney was recently jailed in Northern Ireland after abusing 70 children online and driving one girl to suicide. He was caught after a 13-year-old girl reported him to Police Scotland – triggering a global investigation that led to a life sentence.

However, it says the gap between victim estimates and police data on recorded Scottish cases is also evidence that the pandemic is too big for law enforcement alone. It believes the "pandemic" can be ended with more emphasis on preventive measures, including around education, regulation and global collaboration.

The data will be explored in a special edition of STV’s Scotland Tonight programme, airing tonight at 8.30pm.

Paul Stanfield, Chief Executive of Childlight, tells Scotland Tonight: “I’ve been approached by people who have kept [experiences of child abuse] to themselves for over 50 years. They’re not going to the police to report it, but they’re telling me and they’re only beginning to tell their families today after 50 years.

“Unfortunately at the moment, because there’s no regulation on the internet, it really is the Wild West – anything goes. [Social media is] a key enabler and [offending has] grown exponentially as a result of it. Child sex offenders have been provided with a platform by which they can come together.”

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