Police Scotland has reported an increase in child sex abuse crimes up 11%, with more than 828 logged offences in 2024/ 2025.
Data showed that between April 1st 2024 and March 31st 2025 there were 36,829 recorded offences of indecent and prohibited images of children in the UK, with a national average increase of 9% from the previous year.
Children’s charity the NSPCC said the government must take action against tech companies enabling this online abuse of children.
The NSPCC are calling for device‑level protections to be embedded by default, ensuring children are automatically prevented from creating, sharing or viewing nude images – stopping abuse at the source.
According to the NSPCC, the implementation of this technology would negate the need for encryption. They commented, as it stands “end-to-end-encryption (E2EE) means the scale of online child abuse images is hidden – preventing detection and leading to under-reporting on these platforms”.
The NSPCC reported that when looking at where abuse was taking place online, 43% of crimes were recorded on Snapchat, 8% on Instagram, 7% on WhatsApp, 5% on Facebook and 4% on Messenger.
Chris Sherwood, CEO at the NSPCC, said: “Children across the UK are being completely failed by tech companies that should be protecting them online. We cannot keep letting them off the hook when they can do more to prevent this from happening in the first place.
“Behind every one of these offences is a child who has been groomed, abused and manipulated. They are left to carry the trauma, whilst tech companies continue to profit handsomely.
“Technology already exists that could be deployed today to stop children from taking, sharing or receiving nude images. So, the real question is: what’s stopping them? If they continue to drag their feet, the government must show their might by stepping in and compelling them to act”.
The UK government’s strategy published in December, to tackle Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), outlined its plans to “make it impossible for children in the UK to take, share or view a nude image” and said it was “working constructively with companies to make this a reality”.
The strategy acknowledged the emerging and ever-changing threat of online and tech-facilitated abuse. The report discussed deeply rooted harmful and misogynistic beliefs being shared online, incidents of ‘cyberflashing’ and non-consensual intimate image abuse, including the advent of deepfakes.
Deepfake nudification apps are making it easier for individuals to create non-consensual abusive imagery, including child sexual abuse material. Over 290 of such tools were identified in 2025. The government has banned these apps, however there are still work arounds.
The strategy suggests that technology is enabling child sexual abuse to happen at scale, calling for more to be done to ensure “technology works to protect children, not exploit them.”
The NSPCC suggested that if tech companies implemented the technology to prevent nude images being taken, sent or received, there would be nothing to encrypt – reducing incidents of abuse.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Child protection is a priority for Police Scotland and we will thoroughly investigate child abuse in all its forms, including online offending.
“Police Scotland will always respond when information is received that a child or young person may be at risk of harm, with a focus on identifying and mitigating any risk posed.
The Online Safety Act 2023 introduced new protections to safeguard children online, however, as always, there are weaknesses in the systems that abusers are exploiting to carry out their crimes.
The Government is developing the Crime and Policing Bill to address the rapidly evolving online threats.
They committed to:
- Bringing in a new law to ensure that there are no safe spaces for offenders to commit online child sexual abuse, targeting moderators and administrators.
- Introducing a new offence that criminalises artificial intelligence (AI) models that have been made or adapted to create child sexual abuse material.
- Updating the existing law criminalising ‘paedophile manuals’ to cover using AI to create child sexual abuse material, reflecting the evolving nature of online child sexual abuse.
- Making additional investment in the Child Sexual Abuse Undercover Online Network to target the highest harm individuals which is in addition to the dedicated funding to the National Crime Agency and GCHQ.
The government suggested that early intervention and prevention were essential to combatting this epidemic. This starts with education from a young age, supporting educators and adults, and doing more to police the online environment.
The strategy indicated that regulation alone is not enough. Prevention also requires giving people the confidence and tools to navigate the digital world safely.
Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology stated: “The internet should never enable abuse. No excuses. Together, we will create an online environment where abuse is not tolerated and women and girls can connect, innovate and thrive without fear.”
Steps must be taken to minimise the availability and accessibility of extreme violent and misogynistic content online, which is driving an increase in abuse.
Age-verification, the social media ban consultation and criminalising nudification are all positive developments in reforming online platforms to protect young people.
The VAWG strategy stated: “Keeping children safe is the first responsibility of any government, and that includes online. We want the UK to be the safest place in the world to be online, and one of the hardest places for children to access harmful content”.
The Rt Hon Shabana Mahmood MP, Home Secretary, commented “This strategy contains a raft of measures that will do exactly that. They ensure we can better identify abusers, whether they are operating in the online world, the offline world, or both.”
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