Parents of under-18s should be monitoring their children’s phones for nude pictures, according to the police chief for child protection, in order to tackle a “tidal wave” of online sexual abuse cases.
The new lead for child abuse investigations at the National Police Chiefs’ Council, assistant chief constable Becky Riggs, told the Sunday Times parents needed to report any intimate images of their children to police.
She said: “We in the police talk about the sharing of images from a criminal perspective. Parents should want to protect their children. Parents need to be inquisitive about what their child is doing, looking at your child’s phones to see what kind of conversations are happening. Are they of a sexual nature, are they inappropriate, are there images parents may have concerns about?
“In the eyes of the law, children means the age group until they reach their 18th birthday. There are parents and children who might find that difficult.”
The comments come after a number of high-profile sextortion cases in which children have been blackmailed using images they have taken of themselves.
In October 2022, 16-year-old Dinal De Alwis killed himself after being blackmailed over naked images he had sent to a stranger, possibly in Nigeria. Described by his parents as a “golden boy”, Dinal had received iMessages from a man who was threatening to send two nude images to “all of his followers” if he did not send him money.
Parents of victims often had no idea that their child was being blackmailed. One parent, Rachel, said earlier this year: “We absolutely didn’t have a clue. Not until the police knocked on the door. Because when you’re 14 and somebody tells you they’re going to kill your parents if you say anything, you believe that’s going to happen.”
While much of this abuse comes from adults targeting children, half of it is child-on-child crime and figures show the average age of an offender is 14. In 2022, in England and Wales, about 5,000 cases involved children sharing naked photos of themselves.
Riggs said: “We do not want to criminalise children through lack of education but children must be made aware of what the law says they should and should not be doing. We will work with parents and schools to avoid criminalising children where it comes with a degree of naivety, but we have to measure each case on its merits.”
In the UK, the youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org, and in the UK and Ireland Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 988 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
