Parents must have “uncomfortable conversations” with their children about sex, experts have urged, amid concerns about a rise in reports of child sexual abuse by under 18s.
Deana Puccio, a former sex crimes prosecutor from New York who now works with schools in London, said issues such as consent, porn, respect and empathy should become part of parents’ everyday conversations with young people so they are no longer seen as taboo.
Analysis by the Vulnerability Knowledge and Practice Programme found this was a 7.6 per cent rise on the previous year and almost four times the figure from ten years before.
Wendy Hart, deputy director for child sexual abuse at the National Crime Agency, said: “With over half of reported crimes involving child on child abuse, there has never been a greater need for education in this space.”
She added: “We are now seeing hyper-realistic images and videos of abuse being created using artificial intelligence, for example, while the rollout of end-to-end encryption by technology platforms makes it a lot more difficult for us to protect children.”
Ms Puccio co-founded the RAP project with Allison Havey, which runs workshops in schools that tackle issues of consent, sexual offences and how social media and online pornography are influencing young people.
She said: “We are in uncharted territories. We don’t know what it’s like to see porn at the age of 15. There was Page 3 and porn magazines on the top shelf, but that’s not what these kids are seeing.
“The problem is when they see it they think they are guilty of something, and they think they are bad. But they are kids. As adults we have to step up to the plate and have these conversations.”
She added: “It’s got to be part of our day-to-day conversations, so it’s not a big deal. It has to be woven into our everyday dialogue and not be made into a big taboo.
“We should be talking about how things like porn and the pornification of pop culture, music lyrics, videos and advertising also sets the stage for very misogynistic gender based violent behaviour that become part of our norm.”
The report said around 75 per cent of child sexual abuse and exploitation cases are related to offences committed directly against children, around one in four relate to online indecent images.
The report said the rise in online abuse was “no doubt” partly due to the increase in smartphones and digital devices.
But Ms Puccio said banning smart phones is not the answer, adding: “Pandora’s box is open and we have to deal with it.”
