Online child sex abuse offences from January 2018 to September 2023

Freedom of information request reference no: 01.FOI.23.032896

I note you seek access to the following information:

Whomever it may concern,

The aim of this FOI is to find out how many perpetrators of online child sex abuse offences - ie. individuals watching or sharing illegal sexual images of children - are themselves under 18.

I would like to compare data over time to see if there has been an increase in young people coming to the attention of police for this reason.

I would like to know the ages of individuals identified as being associated with the watching or sharing of an indecent image of a child in all the visits carried out by your forces specialist online child sexual abuse/ exploitation team.

These teams have different names in different regions but may be called OCSET (Online Child Sexual Exploitation Team) or Polit (Paedophile Online Investigation Team) or similar.

The data is usually sent from the NCA to the regional police team for them to follow through with a home visit.

Please can you send me

A breakdown by year of how many individuals in total were identified as a perpetrator in connection with an indecent image of a child

And

How many of these individuals were under 18

if possible a further breakdown by individual age of all those under 18.

• In the year 2023 so far - January to September
• January - December 2020
• January - December 2019
• January - December 2018

If this goes beyond the time scale of required response please send all the data that it is possible to find within the time / cost scale.

I believe there is a strong public interest in understanding and analysing whether there has been a rise in the number of minors who are being identified as viewing or sharing indecent images of children.

This can drive better support and understanding of the root causes of this social shift.

Decision

I have today decided to disclose some of the requested information. Some data has been withheld as it is exempt from disclosure and therefore this response serves as a Refusal Notice under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) by virtue of the following exemptions:

Section 23(5) of the Act – information supplied by or concerning certain Security Bodies
Section 40(2)(3A)(a) – Personal Information

Reason for decision

You have requested information in relation to the breakdown of the ages for those under 18, if this information were to be disclosed then this could cause the identification of these individuals due to the small numbers returned.

Section 40(2)(3A)(a) – Personal Information - Releasing sensitive personal information to someone other than the data subject will almost always infringe the data protection principles contained in the DPA, as it would in this case. There is therefore no need to evidence harm or conduct a public interest test as it is accepted that harm would be caused if information was released into the public domain.

Finally, in addition and irrespective of what other information may or may not be held, the MPS can neither confirm nor deny that it holds any other information relevant to this request, as the duty in Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply by virtue of Section 23(5) of the Act – which provides an exemption for information supplied by or concerning certain Security Bodies.

Confirming or denying the existence of whether any other information is held would contravene the constrictions laid out within Section 23 in that this stipulates a generic bar on disclosure of any information applied by, or concerning, certain Security Bodies.

Disclosure

Please find  below data in relation to your FoIA request.