Online grooming crimes in Yorkshire and the Humber reach record high with Snapchat users targeted most of all

Figures from children’s charity NSPCC show how Yorkshire police forces recorded 581 offences of ‘sexual communication with a child’ in the last year.

Meanwhile, national figures show the number of crimes have doubled since the year the offence was first introduced in 2017/18.

South Yorkshire Police recorded 59 offences in 2017/18 and 144 in 2024/25. The highest year on record for the county was 2019/20, with 187 offences logged.

And, of the 2,111 offences nationally, where police could identify the platform used, 40 per cent took place on Snapchat, nine per cent on WhatsApp and nine per cent on Facebook and Instagram.

Meanwhile, figures provided by 44 police forces across the UK, show that 7,263 Sexual Communication with a Child offences were recorded last year. Where police forces could be directly compared, the number of crimes had almost doubled (99 per cent) from the first year the offence was introduced in 2017/18.

The NSPCC highlights that while these are the offences recorded by police, the real number of crimes is likely to be much higher due to abuse happening in private spaces where harms can be harder to detect.

The charity’s new research identifies cycles of behaviours that perpetrators use, such as creating multiple different profiles and manipulating young users to engage with them across different platforms.

Now, NSPCC is urging Ofcom and tech companies to take action on the recommendations set out in the report, so that they can better identify and prevent online grooming.

Solutions it has recommended tech giants and regulators take include:

• Implementing tools on a child’s phone that can scan for nude images and identify child sexual abuse material, before its shared.
• Using metadata analysis, which uses background information, like when, where, and how someone is using a platform, to spot suspicious patterns. Systems would not read private messages, but could flag behaviours that suggest grooming, such as adults repeatedly contacting large numbers of children or creating fake profiles.
• Create barriers for adult profiles engaging children on social media platforms, like restrictions on who they can search and how many people they can contact.
• Tech platform leaders should commit to delivering services which effectively support and balance user safety and privacy.

The NSPCC is urging tech companies, Ofcom, and Government to take leadership on addressing this devastating crime and commit to using every tool available to them to stop perpetrators in their tracks.

Chris Sherwood, NSPCC Chief Executive, said: "It’s deeply alarming that online grooming crimes have reached a record high across the UK, taking place on the very platforms children use every day.

“At Childline, we hear first-hand how grooming can devastate young lives. The trauma doesn’t end when the messages stop, it can leave children battling anxiety, depression, and shame for years.

“Tech companies must act now to prevent further escalation. The tools the NSPCC sets out to protect children are ready to use and urgently needed. Importantly, they mean that services can keep children safe while protecting all user’s privacy. Children’s safety must be built into platform design from the start, not treated as an afterthought.”

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