December 10th, 2025 - Britain Unveils New Data on 'Grooming Gangs' and Rising Child Sexual Abuse

British police have warned that online predators now represent the "fastest growing" sexual abuse threat to children in the country. The alarming finding was highlighted in an annual report on child sexual abuse and exploitation, which also noted that excessive attention on the so-called "grooming gangs" scandal could be overshadowing the much more common forms of abuse.

While grooming gangs, groups of men who exploited vulnerable girls, often from ethnic minority backgrounds, have been widely publicized, the police emphasized that these crimes account for a tiny fraction of overall offenses. Richard Fewkes, the director of the national child sexual exploitation taskforce, pointed out that grooming gangs represent just 0.5% of all child sexual abuse cases. Despite the notoriety of these gangs, the majority of sexual abuse against children occurs at the hands of individuals known to the victims, including family members.

The report, based on data from England and Wales in 2024, revealed a sharp rise in online abuse cases, with 42% of the recorded offenses involving an online element, up 26% from the previous year. This includes coercing children into sharing explicit images, blackmailing them into performing sexual acts, or even broadcasting their abuse live for profit. The police urged technology companies to take stronger action to prevent such exploitation on their platforms.

Furthermore, the report found that two-thirds of offenses involved physical contact, but only 3.6% were linked to "group-based contact offending," with less than 20% of those cases tied to grooming gangs. It highlighted that other forms of abuse, such as family-based exploitation and abuse by peers, were more prevalent.

Shabana Mahmood, Britain’s Home Secretary, also announced plans to create a new law requiring better ethnicity data collection, aiming to increase transparency around the issue. Despite this, acting Chief Constable Becky Riggs cautioned that most child sexual abuse goes unreported, particularly when family members are involved, and efforts are underway to encourage victims to come forward.

While the government has pledged to address the ongoing issue with new inquiries into grooming gangs, there is growing concern that focusing on one aspect of abuse may delay tackling the broader, more prevalent problem of online sexual exploitation.

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