Two of Britain’s top officers are urging children, parents and carers to ensure they know how to stay safe online – with the National Crime Agency’s latest assessment showing there are at least 300,000 people in the UK posing a sexual threat to children.

The agency released the figure – which comes from intelligence pre-dating the coronavirus outbreak – as it and UK policing warn of a spike in online child sex offending during the coronavirus crisis.

Based on the NCA’s developing understanding – from a variety of sources – it believes there are a minimum 300,000 individuals in the UK posing a sexual threat to children, either through physical ‘contact’ abuse or online.

And such is the prevalence of online abuse, NCA investigators were able to find CSA content on the open web in just three clicks.

With most schools closed and children increasingly online, the NCA and National Police Chiefs’ Council are urging children, parents and carers to ensure they know how to stay safe on the web – with the NCA launching a new #OnlineSafetyAtHome campaign through its education team at CEOP – the Child Exploitation and Online Protection command.

A host of informative, educational products aimed at children of all ages, parents, carers and teachers will be issued through the agency’s Thinkuknow website and social media channels. The activities are easily incorporated into home schooling.

With children spending more time online to do school work or occupy themselves while parents and carers are busy, they face an increased threat from offenders who are also online in greater numbers.

The NCA and UK policing relentlessly fight the online child sexual abuse threat, arresting more than 500 child sex offenders and safeguarding around 700 children each month.

Since schools closed because of coronavirus the number of child safety concerns reported through the CEOP website has stayed largely the same.

While there has been decreased reporting from professionals, such as teachers and social workers, the level of reports from children has remained stable. There has been no delay in how the agency triages and responds to these reports.

But the NCA also knows from online chat that offenders are discussing opportunities to abuse children during the Covid 19 crisis.

Rob Jones, NCA director of threat leadership, said: “Child sexual abuse remains a priority threat for the agency at this difficult time.

“Though we are working around the virus like everyone else, we arecontinuing to pursue high-risk online offenders to ensure they are arrested and children are safeguarded.

“The internet has undeniable benefits to society.

“But it’s also enabled a section of society to commit increasingly horrific crimes against children through grooming, live-streaming and distribution of indecent images.

“Preventing offences occurring is always crucial and now more so than ever when there is masses of online traffic and a possible elevated threat to children.

“We are redoubling our efforts to promote our online safety messages to children, parents, carers and teachers and are working with partners to keep children safe.

“We have long said that we want the tech industry to do more to protect children.

“The advice and activities on our Thinkuknow website are really important and easily built into home schooling programmes.”

NPCC lead for child protection Chief Constable Simon Bailey said: “It is sickening to think that some criminals are looking to exploit the Coronavirus crisis to cause harm online. Despite the issues that the pandemic will cause for law enforcement, child protection is still a priority and we remain totally committed to keeping our young people safe.

“Our joint work with the NCA means we have better intelligence and are arresting more sex offenders than ever before. We will maintain a focus on those who are intent on causing harm to young people and we will strive to bring them to justice. I am also continuing the important work with tech companies to make sure they are playing their part to make the internet as safe as possible.

“Equally as important as police action is making sure children have all the information and tools they need to keep themselves safe online. The Thinkuknow website is a great place for parents to go for advice and a good way to pass the time whilst children are at home.”

The agency is kicking off its programme by providing 15-minute activities to parents and carers to do with their children – and new activities will be launched fortnightly.

Activities have been specifically designed to be fun, yet educational using the Thinkuknow content for the target age group.

Activities will be available for families of children across all age groups (4-5,5 -7, 8-10, 11-14 and 14+) and delivered to families through the newdelivery methods being used by schools, as well as sectors including social care, law enforcement, health and charity.

For advice about online child safety visit Thinkuknow.co.uk

The agency is also releasing COVID-19 specific content through Parent Info, a news feed and website the NCA runs with digital family experts Parent Zone. Over 6,000 schools and organisations have registered to receive content from Parentinfo.org.

Child Protection Charity The Lucy Faithfull Foundation runs the Stop It Now! helpline which offers confidential advice to anyone concerned about their own or someone else’s behaviour towards children.

Donald Findlater, director of the Stop It Now! helpline, said: “In this time of serious worries due to Coronavirus, it’s important that every parent and grandparent is aware of the support available to help them keep children safe. So as families try to keep education going, these engaging online safety resources are a great idea.

“With normal life so different for all of us, parents are more than ever at the forefront of keeping their children safe online and offline, and knowing where to get help and support is vital. Every day our confidential Stop It Now! helpline talks to parents worried about how to keep their children safe – and we talk to parents worrying about their own children’s sexual behaviour.

“Our helpline also talks to adults concerned about their sexual thoughts, helping them manage these so that children are safe. Some people who pose an online or offline risk to children will be struggling with their sexual thoughts or behaviour and need help to manage them. Right now, in this isolation we all experience, it is important that they get help, too. Providing that help keeps children safer.”

If you are concerned a crime has been committed against a child you should contact your local police.

The 300,00 figure comes from the NCA’s latest National Strategic Assessment which will be published online on Friday.

 Notes to editors

Rob Jones, NCA director of threat leadership, and Marie Smith, head of education at CEOP, are available for interview.

The estimate of 300,000 UK offenders is a minimum and is supported by data from various sources. They include the number of offenders on dark web sites, estimated MAPPA data (multi-agency public protection arrangements) and 94,342 UK residents in 2019 contacting the Lucy Faithfull Foundation for themselves or someone close to them who was sexually attracted to children. The previous year it was 43,000 people.

Sample case studies of online child sex offenders caught by the NCA

In December 2018 Mathew Claridge, 49, of Cardiff, was jailed for eight years. Under the name ‘CuddleMonkey’, he targeted more than 100 live-streaming accounts he believed belonged to children promising to send them money for images. He blackmailed one girl whose images he had, telling her: “Bitch you think I won’t do this? Get ready for your life to fall apart when your whole school, all you family and friends see you…” The ready availability of live-streaming services means that offenders find it easy to target and exploit vulnerable children who broadcast videos without fully understanding the risk involved.

Depraved university academic Matthew Falder was jailed for 25 years after an NCA investigation which saw him admit 137 charges. Falder, 29, of Birmingham, operated online under the names ‘666devil’ and ‘evilmind’ tricked young and vulnerable people into sending him self-generated images, then blackmailed them into sending him increasingly sickening images whose poses he directed. Three-hundred and thirty-seven suspects were arrested globally in multi-agency operations sparked by the NCA investigation.

In May last year Andrew Whiddet, 70, a former lieutenant colonel in the British Army was jailed after spending thousands of pounds directing live-streamed child sex abuse from the Philippines. Whiddett believed he could get away with operating online from the comfort of his own home. NCA intelligence led to six children aged between three and 14 being safeguarded.

In January 2018 Patrick McDonald, 23, was jailed after approaching thousands of boys online. He admitted making indecent images of children and inciting children to engage in sexual acts by pretending to be teenage girls. The sentencing judge described the scale of his offending as “breathtaking”.

In December 2019, Christine Callaghan was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment after being convicted of distributing category A (the most serious) and category B livestreamed videos and of two counts of causing/inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity. She was paid £2,285 to stream footage of herself sexually abusing the girl over Skype. She was caught following an investigation into another British Woman, Jodie Little, who was sexually abusing children online for money. From her base in Northern Cyprus, Little was using an adult service website to sell videos of sexual abuse. She was jailed for 12 years and four months. The link between the two women was Dean Petley, who had purchased videos from both the women and stored them on an encrypted hard drive. He was convicted of 11 offences and jailed for eight years.

How to support your child online if they’re at home this month:

• Use the opportunity to chat with your child – chat  with your child about how they are using online technology and what it means to them.

Ask them what they are doing online, and what they like and dislike about the apps and services they use. If you like, discuss some ‘ground rules’ like how much time they spend online doing different things and what games and apps are appropriate to use.

·        Explore Thinkuknow resources together – Every fortnight  Thinkuknow will release  a new set of simple online safety home activities to share with children and young people between the ages of 3 and 16.

Use these to help you keep up a positive, supportive conversation about safety online in your home.

• Remind children to report anything worrying, and how they can do this – it’s important that children and young people always know where to go if they come across something that worries them or makes them feel uncomfortable online.

This is especially important during this time as trusted sources of support such as teachers may not be as available. Children may not have as many opportunities to confidently talk to their friends, who we know are often their first point of contact when they are worried.

• Set up or review your parental controls – setting parental controls can be a quick and effective tool to help protect your children online, and should be installed on all devices that children use. For advice and support in setting these controls, please visit Thinkuknow.co.uk

Parent Info delivers cutting-edge, expert content on a wide range of parenting topics, including supporting children’s mental health, protecting them from sexual abuse, and how to get help if there are concerns about their safety or welfare.  The aim of Parent Info is prevention; by preparing parents to tackle sensitive issues effectively, Parent Info builds their confidence and helps them to make informed decisions about the risks their children face.

For more information on popular apps and games children use, please visit the NSPCC.