What is being done to tackle grooming & sexual exploitation online?

In our final post we will discuss what steps are being carried out by both platforms and Governments to tackle to problem of grooming online.  

Reminder of the Problem

Grooming is unfortunately so prominent on social media that it has become a challenge for social media platforms and governments to implement successful policy changes to eradicate it. For reference, there are estimates of as many as five million predators on the internet. 

For reference, 6,350 Sexual Communication with a Child offences were recorded last year (2022/23). This is an 82% increase since 2017/18 when this offence came into force according to the NSPCC.  More than 5,500 offences were against primary school children, with under-12s being affected by a quarter of cases, which highlights the severity of the issue at hand. 

Instagram: A case study of mediocrity

Instagram has been consistency ranked the worst in terms of the level of harm carried out on the platform.  In response the platform has taken measures such as banning certain hashtags that promoted child exploitation, set-up its own internal task force on exploitation, and has increased the level of moderation overall.  However, the platform has still continued to ignore many practices that facilitate exploitation. 

Indeed, Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) have recently defended plans to add encrypted chat messages to Instagram and Facebook. Parents groups and campaigners have hit out at the firm raising the point that so many cases of grooming take place thought these chats and it will make it more difficult for authorities to trace and gather chat messages after the fact. 

Clearly more needs to be done by platforms to tackle grooming online.  Steps such as banning and moderating will not solve the issue overnight but will go some way to stopping cases of grooming overall. In addition, regulating the tools that groomers use to exploit children could also go some ways to save some from the horrors of grooming. 

The Government Response

When platforms fail to act, the Government often has to step in to regulate their platforms on their behalf.  

The UK Government's flagship policy in this respect has been the Online Safety Act.  Passed this month, it empowers the regulator OFCOM to set rules for platforms to comply with such as requiring systems to identify illegal material and remove it.  It also requires platforms to appoint someone to oversee and be responsible for the implementation of the new rules under the Act. 

It is hoped that this new legislation will remove more content from platforms that is considered dangerous and harmful.  It is also anticipated that these steps will be built on by requiring platforms to set rules on suggestions of friends and to take action on the prevalence of grooming through private messages. 

Building on this Act is the important thing.  Its provisions will not tackle grooming outright but government can and should be doing more to intervene where platforms refuse to adequately root out these issues.

Thank you for following our campaign.  We hope the issues we have raised have made you think about the impact of bullying and exploitation online.  Everyone should take the time to reflect on their behaviour online and #BeaGoodBro!