Children are being groomed on Instagram than on other social media platforms. New figures suggest, leading to calls for tech companies to face stronger child welfare regulations.
Overall, police in England and Wales have recorded more than 5,000 cases of online grooming since having sexual communications with a child became a crime in April 2017.
Instagram was used in a third of cases where a method was disclosed. While Facebook was used in 23% of cases and Snapchat in 14%. The number of cases on Instagram that police dealt with rose by 200% in the space of a year.
Numerous groups have called for Facebook, Instagram and other platforms to face independent regulation in the past year. Citing failings over child safety, data protection and the spread of misinformation.
Last month, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock urges the sites to take action over content that can encourage children to self-harm or commit suicide.
“While we understand that any service that facilitates private communication has the potential to be abused. We go to great lengths — within the bounds of existing law — to try to prevent and respond quickly to this type of illegal activity on our platform.”
A spokesperson for Snapchat said:
