this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2026
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Child sexual abuse in the UK is soaring, police have said, with 1,000 paedophile suspects being arrested each month and the number of children being rescued from harm rising by 50% in the last five years.

The National Crime Agency said the growth in offending across the UK was driven by technology and linked to the radicalisation of offenders in online forums, encouraging people to view images of child sexual abuse by reassuring them it was normal.

Most contact with children happened on mainstream social media platforms, with algorithms pushing paedophilic material to people who have shown a previous interest in it.

The significant increase in every measure “really worries us”, said Rob Jones, the NCA’s director general of operations.

Leads about people interested in sexually abusing children had risen tenfold in a decade, he said, with 1,200 children a month being safeguarded.

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[–] tyrant@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago (7 children)

I'm honestly shocked there are that many pedophiles out there. What is WRONG with people?

[–] rushmonke@ttrpg.network 3 points 12 hours ago

People don't just wear signs saying they're a pedo.

Odds are some of the people you know are pedos without you suspecting it.

[–] couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip 9 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Police said there was no typical offender and previously it had been estimated that up to 840,000 adults in the UK had a sexual interest in children.

If you're easily shocked, don't compare that to the total number of adults in the UK

[–] a1studmuffin@aussie.zone 5 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

I had to check after this comment.

840,000 pedophiles / 55,653,768 UK adults = 1.5% of all adults or 1 in 66 adults. That is much higher than I thought, and I assume it's a similar ratio globally.

[–] LwL@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago

Is it that surprising? Age play is a thing, plus so much porn has actresses dressed up to look like a child for some reason (the reason is people are into it). It's just that, same as any other fetish that will harm people if acted on, 99% of that 1.5% are just gonna be normal about it and not diddle kids.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

That's horrifying. Though I'm curious if sexologists and other non-law enforcement experts agree with those numbers and ratios

[–] nightwatch_admin@feddit.nl 33 points 1 day ago

Well, it’s a 1000 suspects, not necessarily 1000 convicted. And sadly, there are false accusations for examplentoo.

Then again, if only 10% of such a 1000 is a legitimate suspect, then that’s shocking enough.

[–] tomiant@piefed.social 26 points 1 day ago

I'm questioning the numbers. First off, they are suspects, secondly, what are the determining qualifiers? It wouldn't shock me that the UK, who is in the process of creating a total surveillance shitopia using the justification of "protecting children" would have incentive to adopt extra broad definitions to scare people like yourself into believing pedos are everywhere around you so you would support their political agenda.

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago (3 children)

What's been shocking me is just how rampant pedophilia actually is. What the fuck is it that draws so many people (primarily powerful cis men) to it? It's fucking disgusting

[–] Echinoderm@aussie.zone 28 points 1 day ago

The perception that it's primarily powerful men is a distortion from the Epstein files. Those are the ones that can traffic victims maybe, but more often sexual assaults on children are by people known to the victim, like family or friends of family.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 15 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

If you want a real answer it's likely mostly because humans only recently became "civilised" as far as our evolutionary past is concerned.

For our entire history before that, it has been evolutionarily advantageous to breed as early as biologically possible.

These genetics still exist and having attraction to minors still haunts humanity. Some studies show very large numbers of adults, in the realm of 10-25% of the population, are attracted to minors. Usually the definition is below the age of consent in the country of the study.

Almost all of these people understand it's wrong and do not pursue these unwanted feelings. When people have overlaps between psychopathy, trauma or other conditions and the attraction to minors they often become offenders.

[–] nykula@piefed.social 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Having children early is a different demographic, teenagers with teenagers or young adults. Pedos are older people targeting teenagers, which I'm not sure has any significant evolutionary advantage. If anything, young women would be better off looking for young men, and vice versa. I'd argue pedos is a socially constructed phenomenon, powered mainly by power disbalance, not an evolutionary one.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Evolutionary pressures and positive selection does not care for these constructs, getting older isn't likely to decrease attraction to minors in these people

[–] nykula@piefed.social 2 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

While they can be attracted, without social pressures the teenagers would simply tell them to go away. An image of an older entrepreneur or a star seeking very young companions is recognized as success. Older people have more autonomy and resources than young adults and teenagers. Being an equal in a company of other teenagers is seen as boring, less cool than a teenager in a company of adults. Socially constructed hierarchies of adults over children like these add up, leading to predators not being prevented as much as they should. In case of Epstein, he was considered normal as long as he was perceived as targeting young women in their late teens as a 40 year-old man, which I think should be much more frowned upon; instead, it's being celebrated, not by evolution but by adults making conscious decisions.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 2 points 11 hours ago

These are very new concepts over the duration of evolution. Grooming has probably existed since the dawn of social structures

[–] FerretyFever0@fedia.io 6 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Lack of self-control or empathy, paired with a fucked up mind. Same as serial killers, I'd guess.

[–] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 15 points 1 day ago

Many sociopaths are not limited by their lack of empathy and are able to navigate the systems of society with ease in ways that people with morals simply can't or won't. As a result, it seems likely that a very high proportion of the people historically and currently in powerful positions are in fact sociopaths. Our systems were never designed to defeat sociopathic tendencies, in fact they tend to reward them. And now that the sociopaths are in power, they begin to realize that nobody can stop them, and they become even more brazen as they make sure the systems reward them even more, and make systems that will never stop rewarding them.

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I wonder how many of the Trump-Epstein Class are serial killers. We already know for sure many of them have blood on their hands

[–] P00ptart@lemmy.world 1 points 21 hours ago

Think tek knight from the boys.

[–] leftascenter@jlai.lu 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Sorry to break it to you

world statshttps://www.healthdata.org/news-events/newsroom/news-releases/nearly-half-sexual-abuse-first-happens-age-15-or-younger-global

Key takeaways

The prevalence of sexual violence against children (SVAC) is high, with nearly one out of five women and one out of seven men around the globe who are survivors.

Regardless of regional or economic status, SVAC prevalence among women is substantial, even in high-income countries such as the Netherlands (30%), New Zealand (29%), the US (28%), and the UK (24%).

Low- and middle-income nations like Chile, Costa Rica, India, and Rwanda recorded a high prevalence among women of at least 30%; among men in Bangladesh and Côte d’Ivoire, the prevalence was 28%.

[–] cecilkorik@piefed.ca 0 points 1 day ago

Well, when all the world leaders are doing it, and none of them have been punished for it... maybe some people now think that's the way you become president, like your parents always told you you could. See, we've just been doing it wrong all along, apparently the secret skill we were lacking was fucking children /s