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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[–] choui4@lemmy.zip 1 points 53 minutes ago

It really is pedofile island

Not one of them an ex prince

[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 6 points 9 hours ago

These folks would be great for political office in the US.

[–] x00z@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

I'm wondering if this is because how social media and internet culture fucks up the minds of young women, who then do sexy dances en poses for all the world to see.

I installed Instagram to talk with a friend for a while and I noticed that the feed, without any interaction from me yet, was just young women "being sexy". In many cases I suspect them to be underage.

[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 1 points 37 minutes ago

I installed Instagram to talk with a friend for a while and I noticed that the feed, without any interaction from me yet, was just young women "being sexy". In many cases I suspect them to be underage.

Meta keeps a shadow profile on everyone regardless of if they have an account or not

[–] WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 hour ago

Are you blaming children for pedophilia?

[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 31 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

So me having to verify my age to buy NSFW games on steam and to use discord has accomplished nothing in the fight to protect children online?

Well colour me surprised.

[–] couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip 13 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think age verification for games and movies and such are meant to protect against sexual abuse. They're there to protect the 'feeble mind' of children

[–] rushmonke@ttrpg.network 15 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

It's to surveil the population.

[–] couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip 2 points 10 hours ago

Well I agree that that's a huge risk, but apparently they don't even have the manpower to round up all the pedophiles

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 52 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

Arresting 1000 a month for computer images, but not one former prince who fucked a flesh and blood child.

[–] how_we_burned@lemmy.zip 33 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Arresting 1000 a month for computer images, but not one former prince who ~~fucked~~raped a flesh and blood child.

Words matter

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 20 points 15 hours ago

I stand corrected.

[–] lolo@sh.itjust.works 8 points 17 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 10 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Yes. I stand corrected. The former prince raped a child.

[–] TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

At least they are being arrested... Looking at the dystopian shithole across the pond 👀

[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 12 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

You think any of these 1000 pedos are Prince Andrew?

No. No they aren't.

[–] TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)
[–] Jax@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 hours ago

This is good, and I'm glad he's being charged. I hope Norway continues this trend.

That being said, I feel like there's something odd about being proud of charging a rapist (granted, he is a rapist in power so him being charged is a very good thing) when there are people like the former prime minister who probably raped kids.

Idk, it seems like a hollow victory — my sense of justice is telling me that so so much more needs to be done, and it needs to be done yesterday.

[–] rushmonke@ttrpg.network 4 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

"Child rape for me, not for thee." - our oligarchs

spoilerHave fun getting up and going to work.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 8 hours ago

On one hand I'm mad they're raping children, but when you frame it as them not making me do it too there's at least that

[–] Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 40 points 23 hours ago

How many are convicted and how many found guilty? Also is this a case of more crime or just being better at finding crime that was always there? Honestly not sure how you would be able to tell for that though.

[–] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 13 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

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.

What if we lived in a society which offered these people counciling instead of CSAM

[–] eleijeep@piefed.social 8 points 13 hours ago

What if we regulated the social media companies and outlawed algorithmic radicalisation?

[–] couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip 2 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Well, how many counselors do you have?

[–] Killer57@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 hours ago (2 children)
[–] village604@adultswim.fan 2 points 2 hours ago

And the numbers are definitely higher than that, because most people aren't going to admit they're pedophiles to a survey.

I just don't get it. At 23 I had to break up with my 18yo girlfriend after like a month because "awesome, 18 year old tail" very quickly became, "she's still a child, I feel gross."

[–] couldhavebeenyou@lemmy.zip 1 points 2 hours ago

Well we'd have to know how many hours it takes to 'turn' a pedophile

My guess is it's about as difficult as it is to turn a heterosexual person gay

[–] Muscle_Meteor@discuss.tchncs.de -1 points 11 hours ago

City or phsychological?

[–] 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 11 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 16 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 16 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 8 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 8 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 23 hours 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 23 hours 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 23 hours 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 21 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 13 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 12 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 10 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 9 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 23 hours ago (3 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 23 hours 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.

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[–] tomiant@piefed.social 13 points 23 hours ago

When there is "significant increase in every measure", then that usually means that they changed the measure.

[–] shittydwarf@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Last time I checked he isn’t from the UK

[–] RIotingPacifist@lemmy.world 3 points 20 hours ago
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