Child abuse

FEATURE: Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to two officers from the South Australian Joint Anti-Child Exploitation Team (SA JACET) – one of a number of JACET units across the country – about their successes in protecting children and arresting offenders involved in online child sexual exploitation, as annual referrals to the national Centre to Counter Child Exploitation soar, increasing more than five-fold over the past seven years.

OPINION: Baroness Casey’s recent report into grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation (CSE) in England and Wales made 12 recommendations, including a new national inquiry into child sexual exploitation; but Aisha K Gill, Professor of Criminology at the University of Bristol, warns that, with none of the previous independent inquiry’s 20 recommendations fully implemented, identifying and rectifying the failures of police and local authorities remains crucial to securing justice for the victims of CSE.

ANALYSIS: A new report exposes the financial mechanisms that are enabling the online sexual exploitation and abuse of children on a global scale, as well as highlighting that financial institutions, tech companies and online payment platforms are also profiting from this “grotesque marketplace”, as Deborah Fry, Professor of International Child Protection Research at the University of Edinburgh and Global Director of Data for Childlight, the Global Child Safety Institute, explains.

FEATURE: A new report from the Vulnerability Knowledge Practice Programme analysing police-recorded child sexual abuse and exploitation (CSAE) highlights the scale of the crime, gaps in reporting, and threats that could contribute to further increases in CSAE, as well as legislation and other measures that could improve the police response, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A new report from the Financial Action Task Force explores the financial drivers behind the “heinous” crime of online child sexual exploitation, with the increasing prevalence of live-streamed sexual abuse of children and the financial sexual extortion of children creating millions of embarrassed and vulnerable young victims around the world every year, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: A new report from the Centre of expertise on child sexual abuse into the latest trends in child sexual abuse (CSA) offences in England and Wales has highlighted record levels of charges for CSA and long delays in court cases, but also significant geographical variations in data recording and trends that suggest the response to sexually abused children “depends on where they live”, prompting calls for a Government-led national prevalence survey to establish the true scale of the problem, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INNOVATION: As forces increase contact channels to include digital and online routes, the likelihood of comms staff being exposed to harmful images has increased, says Rebecca Malpass, Digital Communications Development Senior for Derbyshire Constabulary; now a new AI-based image filter together with additional guidance for staff can help to protect individuals from being exposed to indecent images, as she explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INNOVATION: With the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate online child sex abuse material (CSAM), a new report from the Australian Institute of Criminology has highlighted the potential of the new technology to be deployed in the fight against CSAM and to relieve some of the burden on human investigators – but also warns that many would-be AI solutions are still not fit for purpose, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: With the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) making the technology both more available and easier to use, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at law enforcement efforts to tackle AI-generated online child sexual abuse material – including last month’s success of Operation Cumberland, involving European, UK, Australian and New Zealand forces – as well as EU steps to tackle other damaging AI-generated online content.

ANALYSIS: New laws proposed by the UK Government will be the first in the world to make it an offence to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to generate child sexual abuse material; Simon Bailey, Chair of the International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute (IPPPRI), and IPPPRI Director, Professor Sam Lundigran, explain why the new laws will be crucial in the fight against the growing scale of AI-generated online child abuse images.

INNOVATION: Operation Makesafe is the nationwide policing initiative working with hotels and accommodation providers across England and Wales to target and prevent premises being used for child sexual exploitation (CSE); Richard Fewkes, Director of the Hydrant Programme and the CSE Taskforce, explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about how the initiative works, and the potential to expand to other sectors including fast-food outlets, taxi companies and vape shops.

INTERVIEW: Staffordshire Assistant Chief Constable Becky Riggs, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection and abuse investigation, spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the need for a public protection gold command accreditation to ensure senior leaders are well versed in the importance of multi-agency working and data sharing in ensuring the safety of children and young people.

INTERVIEW: The Chair of the Virtual Global Taskforce – the organisation now consisting of 15 law enforcement agencies tackling online child sexual exploitation – passed from the UK’s National Crime Agency to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) in November; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to AFP Commander Helen Schneider about the goals for the Taskforce over the next three years, and why identifying AI deepfakes and protecting the wellbeing of police investigators will be among the priorities.

ANALYSIS: Police in England and Wales have, for the first time, collected and published detailed information gleaned from crime reports about child sex abuse and exploitation (CSAE) carried out by networks or groups, in a bid to put resources in the right areas and challenge assumptions with data along the way, as Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass reports.

FEATURE: With the “global health emergency” of child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSAE) reaching harrowing levels, Policing Insight’s Andrew Staniforth looks at the work of Protect and Prevent Through Support – a Europe-wide initiative led by the Polish Platform for Homeland Security – in collating data and co-ordinating services to prevent CSAE.

FEATURE: A 27-year-old paedophile was creating cartoonish pseudo child abuse images and distributing them among an online network; Detective Chief Inspector Jen Tattersall from Greater Manchester Police’s online child abuse investigations team tells Ian Weinfass how the force managed to bring a case against the offender, and safeguard real children at risk.

FEATURE: Ongoing research by Anglia Ruskin University’s International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute (IPPPRI) has highlighted the gap in support for families of suspects of online child sexual abuse, and vital role played by Indirect Victim Support Officers both in providing guidance and assistance for those families, and relieving the burden on officers investigating the case, as IPPPRI Associate Professor Dr Theresa Redmond explains.

ANALYSIS: Every seven minutes a child is faced with harmful online content but as the threat grows, law enforcement is still playing catch up in its awareness of the risk the Metaverse poses to child safety. Policing Insight's Contributing Editor Sarah Gibbons reports on new research led by Professors Julia Davidson of the University of East London and Elena Martellozzo of Middlesex University that is seeking to redress the balance.

FEATURE: A recent conference focusing on sexual offending, vulnerability and policing saw calls for senior police and academics to take a “pracademic” approach to child sexual exploitation, described as a “public health crisis” for the current generation of children and young people, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

INTERVIEW: Dr Ruth Parkes, senior lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire and expert on workplace trauma exposure and sexual offending, believes all police officers working with sexual offence material should receive stress inoculation training to be able to deal with the feelings of horror and revulsion they experience, as she explained to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

FEATURE: Officers across England and Wales investigating complex child sexual abuse and exploitation cases have been encouraged to access free specialist advice and support from the national Hydrant Programme during their investigations, to improve the outcomes for victims and survivors, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

OPINION: After three years as the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for Child Protection Abuse and Investigation, earlier this month former Merseyside Deputy Chief Constable Ian Critchley took up a new role at the College of Policing; in this article he looks back over his time in post, highlights the continuing efforts of police and partners to protect children from abuse, and calls on governments to take action to tackle what has become a ‘public health crisis’.

OPINION: Ahead of this week’s conference on learning from and embedding victim and survivor experiences in response to child sexual abuse (CSA), Dr Sarah Colley, Postdoctoral Researcher at event organisers the International Policing and Public Protection Research Institute, underlines the importance of listening to – and acting on – the lived experiences of victims and survivors of CSA.

FEATURE: From fraud to CSE to radicalisation, generative artificial intelligence is already changing criminal operations; experts at the recent UCL International Crime Science Conference discussed what changes that are “faster than the industrial revolution” mean now and for the future, and debated ways to uphold public safety, as Policing Insight’s Ian Weinfass reports.