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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[–] couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day ago

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