Thousands of cases of online grooming have been reported as Brits wait for the Online Safety Bill to become law.

According to data from 42 UK police forces, over 6,000 offences related to sexual communication with a child were recorded last year – a rise of 82% since the offence was introduced in 2017-18.

Of these crimes, around 150 apps, games and websites were used to target children: 73% cited the use of Snapchat or Meta-linked websites. Shockingly 5,500 of the offences were against primary school aged children.

The NSPCC has highlighted these stats with Chief Executive Sir Peter Wanless stressing the scale of online abuse, and calling for urgent implementation of the Bill to protect children.

The charity has said that where the gender of the victim of social media grooming in the last six years is known, 83% of cases took place against girls.

Ross Hendry, CARE's CEO, commented:

“This is a shocking story that will cause alarm to parents and carers. It demonstrates that without appropriate protections in place the online world is an unsafe space for our most vulnerable citizens.

“I think there are several things to say in response. Firstly, legislative action is needed. As the NSPCC said today, the Online Safety Bill is vitally important. There are measures in the bill to protect kids from harmful content. It will also place new duties for companies to take action to protect children. The bill needs to be passed and enforced as soon as is practicably possible.

“Secondly, social media companies need to realise the gravity of the situation and look at ways to enhance child protection on their platforms. There are undoubtably things that can be done around private messaging and user-to-user engagement. The bottom line is this: if you are making your app open to 13-year-old children, you must make sure it is a safe space for 13-year-olds.”

“Finally, I think this report is a reminder to parents and teachers and others in caring roles of the need to be extra vigilant. Adults need to be aware of children's online habits. Are there suspicious signs? Are they withdrawn? Are they messaging people who they’ve never met? Some parents may want to ask: should my child be using apps unsupervised at all, given the dangers?”

Parliament will finish debating the Online Safety Bill in the autumn. A government spokesperson has confirmed that the Government are working closely with Ofcom to make sure protections are “enforced as soon as possible”.

The spokesperson added: “In the meantime, law enforcement has been working closely with social media platforms to bring perpetrators to justice for the abhorrent crimes that are committed online.”