Children as young as five are being groomed and abused on Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook, with 5,161 incidents reported in the UK in 18 months. The number of children targeted on Instagram has tripled in just one year.
Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram were used to target children in 70 percent of recorded incidents, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) reports. While 12-15-year-old girls were the most common targets for pedophiles, about 20 percent of the victims were under 11 and the youngest victim was just five years old.
Groomers used Instagram to contact targets in 428 cases between April and September 2018, a huge increase from the same period in 2017 which saw 126 cases. This figure only includes incidents where police recorded the method of communication used to target victims, the real number may be far higher.
The NSPCC obtained the figures through freedom of information requests to 39 police forces in England and Wales. A number of forces, including the City of London, did not respond to the request. Sexual communication with a child became an offense in the UK in April 2017.
https://www.rt.com/uk/452752-grooming-instagram-increase-pedophiles/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome