The NSPCC has revealed that more than 1,300 cases of sexual communication with a child have been recorded in the six months following the introduction of the new offence, Sexual Communication with a Child. Before the new law was introduced in April 2017, police couldn’t intervene until groomers met young people in person.
The NSPCC has found that girls aged 12–15 were the most likely to be targeted, but that some children were as young as seven. The charity has called for the government and social media companies to use existing technology to identify grooming behaviour and set up anti-grooming alerts for young people and moderators.
