Police in Northern Ireland have increased targeted searches to crack down on child sexual exploitation.
The PSNI Child Internet Protection Team carried out more than 145 overt searches in 2022, seizing thousands of devices and recovering tens of thousands of indecent images of children.
These searches resulted in 56 arrests, almost 20% more than 2021. In total, 83 child predators were convicted in Northern Ireland last year.
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Child sexual exploitation (CSE) is a form of child abuse where young people are coerced to take part in sexual activity, manipulated by the receipt of gifts, money, drugs or alcohol in return.
Detective Chief Inspector Kerry Brennan has highlighted that there are criminals who seek to exploit the fact that more and more children have unsupervised internet access.
“Children now have access to numerous digital devices at home, meaning they are at greater risk to be targeted by online predators with sinister intentions,” DCI Brennan said.
“We have specially trained detectives policing our online spaces and wider community on a daily basis, but child sexual exploitation remains challenging to investigate as it often goes underreported, hidden in plain sight.
“Child predators are incredibly manipulative and often children do not even realise that they are being exploited and abused.”
Sexual communication with a child online has increased by more than 30% from 2021, while the possession and sharing of indecent images increased by more than 20%.
Ms Brennan also stressed that knowing the signs of a child in danger may be the best way to prevent abuse.
“This is why, on top of continuing to target, search and arrest perpetrators, we are also working with youth workers, members of the hospitality and night-time economy sector and parents/guardians to educate on how spot the signs of CSE,” she said.
“We want to empower our communities to be the voice for a child at risk and have confidence to report any concerns they may have to us so we can investigate.
“We would far rather someone alerted us and for it to be a false alarm, than for us to miss a chance to safeguard a vulnerable child.”
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