Parents should check under-18s’ phones for explicit images, says top police chief

Forces are facing a ‘tidal wave’ of online sex abuse cases involving children, new chief warns

Adults are being urged to put safeguards on their children’s smartphones (AP)

Parents should monitor their children’s phone usage until they are 18, the new police chief for child protection has said.

Assistant chief constable Becky Riggs, who is the new lead for child abuse at the National Police Chief’s Council, urged parents to be “inquisitive” about the kind of content and conversations thier children are having and report anything of a sexual nature.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Ms Riggs said: “We in the police talk about the sharing of images from a criminal perspective. Parents should want to protect their children. Parents need to be inquisitive about what their child is doing, looking at your child’s phones to see what kind of conversations are happening.

“Are they of a sexual nature, are they inappropriate, are there images parents may have concerns about?

“In the eyes of the law, children means the age group until they reach their 18th birthday. There are parents and children who might find that difficult.”

Keir Starmer is against banning smartphones for the under-16s (PA)

She also advised parents to put safeguards on children’s smartphones including those which only allow them to communicate with children of their own age group on social media.

Last week Sir Keir Starmer said that he is not in favour of banning mobile phone for under-16s, but suggested there should be stronger controls around what content children can access on the devices.

Asked about whether he limits his 13-year-old daughter and 16-year-old son’s mobile phone use, Sir Keir told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “Our children have mobile phones and I’m not in favour of simply banning them for children under 16.

“I think there’s a serious question as to what the content is and the control of the content and that is something where I think we need to look again.”

It comes as Esther Ghey, the mother of murdered teenager Brianna Ghey, is campaigning for an age limit for smartphone usage and stricter controls on access to social media apps.