XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.politics.usa, alt.politics.bush
XPost: alt.politics.kerry

In article <t1tk3f$38qj6$196@news.freedyn.de>
<governor.swill@gmail.com> wrote:


Online child sex abuse has increased by 27 per cent in just two
years, as the NSPCC called for tougher laws to combat “digital
breadcrumbing” that signposts paedophiles to illegal content.

Police data obtained by the NSPCC through freedom of information
laws shows the number of offences rose from 24,964 in 2018/19 to
31,600 in 2020/21.

These included 6,319 grooming offences - a new crime of sexual
communications with a child - and more than 25,000 paedophiles
caught with child abuse images.

The NSPCC said the crimes were being fuelled by offenders using
social media to form networks, advertise a sexual interest in
children and signpost to illegal child abuse content hosted on
third party sites.

The charity said a potential loophole in the Government’s new
Online Safety Bill - due to have a second reading next week -
would allow the tactics, known as “breadcrumbing,” to continue
even after it became law.

It said the regulator should be given additional powers to treat
activity that facilitates child abuse with the same severity as
illegal material.

‘Tribute sites’ used by offenders
Among the techniques used by offenders are “tribute sites” -
fake social media profiles of child abuse survivors known to
those with a sexual interest in children. These received six
million interactions in just three months of 2021.

According to the NSPCC, abusers are also using Facebook groups
that are thinly veiled for those with an interest in children
celebrating the 8th , 9th and 10th birthdays and have up to
50,000 members. The charity said many remained live despite
being reported to Meta.

There were also carefully edited child abuse videos where
abusers used sophisticated understanding of what platforms will
and will not takedown to post edited videos of real abuse scenes
that subvert content moderation rules and don’t cross the
illegal threshold.

The NSPCC also called for tougher action on private messaging
and cross platform abuse.

Legislation is ‘key pillar of child protection system’
Sir Peter Wanless, the chief executive of the NSPCC, said: “This
historic Online Safety Bill can finally force tech companies to
systemically protect children from avoidable harm.

“With online child abuse crimes at record levels and the public
rightly demanding action, it is crucial this piece of
legislation stands as a key pillar of the child protection
system for decades to come.

“Today’s NSPCC report sets out simple but targeted solutions for
the Bill to be improved to stop preventable child sexual abuse
and to finally call time on years of industry failure.”

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)