Nationally, the number of online grooming crimes has increased by nearly 90% over the last 7 years. Kit Taylor reports.
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00:00When a child closes their door and opens their phone, do you really know who they're talking to?
00:04Police are urging parents to have more conversations with their children,
00:08after new figures on online child abuse have revealed that Kent has the highest
00:11figures for grooming across the South East. We've seen a year-on-year increase since 2017.
00:16The offenders are becoming more sophisticated. We've advanced
00:20in how we identify and target paedophiles online.
00:23Snapchat was the most popular platform used to target children online last year,
00:27with the messaging app being used in almost half of cases across the UK.
00:31Snapchat are reporting concerns, which I think is really positive, but we see it in all platforms,
00:38whether it's a gaming platform, whether it's one of the social media platforms,
00:42but often it will start in a very innocent way and then young people will be asked to move across
00:48to a different platform and I think that's a real red flag that people need to be aware of.
00:52The NSPCC research showed that cases in Kent had doubled since 2017,
00:57with the youngest victim being just six years old.
01:01Meanwhile in Australia, under-16s have been banned from using social media,
01:05which has started a conversation in the UK on whether we should do that too.
01:09In primary schools, teachers like Joe are working to support children,
01:12to understand the risks they face online.
01:15So I've been a teacher for 16 years now and in that time I think developments in technology,
01:21in gaming, apps that have been created, has actually outpaced people's understanding of them
01:27and I think therefore that's why there's a greater need right now for an even more robust education
01:31about what can be done to support children when they're on those things.
01:34You teach these safeguarding resources to primary school children,
01:39surely these children are too young to be online?
01:41I think there's a misconception with the really young children that they're okay,
01:45because they're not likely to necessarily use certain games or apps,
01:48but the fact of the matter is there are children that I've certainly experienced in my time as a teacher
01:52that have openly told me that they're on apps or software that are not of an age-appropriate age
01:58and that though they might not be necessarily using some of those technologies or apps or games yet,
02:03the likelihood is they are going to in the future,
02:05so it's important to kind of prepare them before they get to use them.
02:09We teach children how to cross a road before they're able to cross the road on their own
02:12and it's a similar kind of approach from us as a school in that sense as well.
02:16So what should people do if they're worried about a child?
02:19I know that sometimes there are conversations that we have to have as parents or teachers
02:23or guardians that can be difficult or challenging and if you have them conversations with them,
02:28they feel empowered to do the right thing and say the right thing and if you have an open conversation,
02:33there is less of an opportunity and a chance that they're going to try and do things in secret.
02:38Kit Taylor, KMTV.