Tech companies 'must stop paedophiles uploading child sex abuse images', National Crime Agency says

Officials say technology that could screen images already exists and would allow security services to focus on the highest-risk offenders

The National Crime Agency received 80,000 referrals over indecent photos and videos found on the internet last year alone (PA)

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has called for technology companies to stop paedophiles uploading child sex abuse images as it attempts to track down an “exponentially increasing” number of British people viewing them.

The agency received 80,000 referrals over indecent photos and videos found on the internet last year alone and forecast the vile trend to worsen as people become increasingly “desensitised” to extreme pornography.

NCA leaders said technology capable of preventing millions of images listed on international databases being uploaded already exists, and would allow its officers to focus on the highest-risk paedophiles.

Britain is the third-biggest known global consumer of the illegal material, behind the US and Canada, and security services fear the true scale of the threat remains unknown.

An average of 400 people are already being arrested every month on suspicion of child sexual abuse and exploitation offences, and 500 children being safeguarded in England and Wales.

The NCA’s director for vulnerabilities, Will Kerr, said he wanted internet service providers and hosting platforms to take more responsibility for letting users upload indecent images of children.

“The scale has so fundamentally changed that we need a fundamentally recalibrated approach,” he told journalists in London.

“It is not sustainable for companies to simply identify indecent images on their servers and report it to law enforcement, when we know that technologically you can prevent it at source.

“Why wouldn’t we stop tens of thousands of children getting exploited and abused if we have the means to do it?”

Robert Jones, of the NCA’s child exploitation command, said most of the material online has been recirculated but officers examine any new images to identify and protect children.

“Once that happens it needs to be taken down and never be seen again,” he added.

“Many people in the UK are viewing indecent images of children and the majority of those images are hosted on platforms in the US.”

Around a third of indecent images of children are “self-generated” by under-18s filming or photographing themselves and either sharing them with friends or online.

But there is mounting concern over the industry growing around encrypted livestreams, watched by thousands of people in the UK, where children are abused for the viewing of paying paedophiles.

Mr Jones said horrific acts can be carried out “to order”, with customers stipulating the victims’ age, ethnicity and clothing.

The crime currently appears to be concentrated in the Philippines and elsewhere in Asia, he said, warning: “We can pursue British nationals as much as we want, but unless you’ve got a safeguarding response in those countries we won’t get the impact we need.”

The NCA said encryption was enabling the behaviour alongside the dark web, where users aim to conceal their identity and location.

Dr Matthew Falder, a 29-year-old Cambridge graduate, used the technology to become one of Britain’s most prolific paedophiles after blackmailing dozens of young victims into performing depraved sexual acts online.

Three of them attempted to kill themselves after being coerced into sending him explicit images, with Falder being arrested following an international intelligence operation involving security services in the UK, US, Israel and Australia.

“This was one person who succeeded in victimising 300 people – if you scale that up it is a real concern,” Mr Jones said.

“There is a very real concern that people over the past 10 years have gone through a process of desensitisation with pornography, almost radicalisation.

“They seek more and more severe images and gravitate to forums on the dark web where you will be incited to create a first-generation image and commit contact abuse.”

Limited research has indicated that people may be led to child sex abuse images from adult pornography websites, and 30 per cent of suspects arrested over indecent images in the UK are themselves under 18.

NCA officials said not all suspects may not have a specific sexual interest in children or present a real-world threat, but they would “not take any risks”.

The agency is also leading the investigation into the Rotherham grooming scandal, currently the UK’s largest law enforcement operation, after identifying more than 1,500 victims and 131 suspects.

Mr Kerr warned of increasing crossover between crimes like sexual exploitation, organised crime and human trafficking, citing the rise of “county lines” drug gangs that use vulnerable teenagers as mules.