Web predators lure hundreds of kids a year

Hundreds of sick perverts are prosecuted annually for exposing children to obscene images of twisted sex acts.

A shock Sunday Post investigation has revealed hundreds of adults, including parents and guardians, have appeared in court charged with exposing youngsters to shocking pictures for their own sexual gratification.

Worried child protection experts have revealed exposing youngsters to sick images, including illegal pictures involving child victims, is a key method used by paedophiles to groom youngsters.

In just three years, 558 cases of children aged 15 or under forced to view indecent or obscene material for perverted adults’ pleasure were brought before magistrates courts for first hearings.

But campaigners claim the number of cases represents only the tip of the iceberg, with many victims who will never come to the authorities’ attention.

Jon Brown, head of sexual abuse prevention at charity NSPCC, said: “When we think about the vast amount and increased availability of sexual images online that are very easy to get hold of, the risk to children of either deliberately or inadvertently being exposed to that material must have increased.

“There is obviously going to be a sliding scale from inadvertent viewing of hardcore porn where parents haven’t taken care to stop them viewing it, through to adults deliberately and actively exposing them as a grooming process towards sexual abuse.

“It is pretty clear the risk is increasing.”

Linda Dominguez, director of child abuse charity One in Four, said the prevalence of illegal child porn was a particular concern.

She said: “We would imagine that this area of offence would be vastly under-reported as is the case with sexual offences against children.

“Apart from the damage inflicted on children by sight of these images, the children who are being abused and assaulted within the images experience an additional and horrible consequence on top of the abuse they have suffered.

“These images which are often distributed on the internet will never be fully erased and that can be incredibly difficult knowledge to live with.”

Helen Goodman, Labour MP for Bishop Auckland in County Durham, uncovered the figures through a Parliamentary Question asking for the number of cases involving parents and guardians, after being informed of such a case.

The response from the Solicitor General included parents and guardians but could not separate them from non-family offenders.

She said: “I think it is a tip of the iceberg situation.

“It is horrific evidence of a problem that we knew existed but it really shows the scale.”

Policing Minister Damian Green said: “Child sexual exploitation is an abhorrent crime that we are determined to eradicate both on and offline.

“We’re working with the police, NCA and Internet Watch Foundation to make the web a safer place and urge anyone who stumbles across disturbing images to report them.”