Internet used in eight cases of child sex abuse every day, NSPCC finds

Charity reveals more than 3,000 cyber-enabled sexual crimes were committed against children in past year

The internet was used to commit an average of eight sexual crimes against children each day in the past year, including rapes, grooming and live streaming of abuse, new figures obtained by the NSPCC reveal.

The data reveals that in England and Wales during 2015-16 more than 3,000 sexual crimes were committed against children in which the internet was used as a gateway to access or abuse them. These included more than 100 rapes, plus cases of inciting children to take part in a sexual act and grooming offences.