Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the risk of an increase in online child sexual abuse during the covid-19 outbreak when people are required to stay at home.

COVID-19 represents the most serious threat to public health in a generation.

We are working at pace to understand the impact of COVID-19 on child sexual abuse, gathering input from law enforcement, safeguarding leads, charities, international partners and wider colleagues. Based on early reporting from law enforcement partners and expert opinion, our initial assessment suggests the risk of online abuse is likely to increase. We will continue to strengthen this assessment through regular situational updates and measuring the threat over a longer period, to ensure we can deliver the most effective response and that it reflects the risk across the whole system.

In response, we are working across Government and with frontline partners to identify and respond to common challenges impacting vulnerable children across different crime threats, including coordinating messaging and support to frontline services.

Our law enforcement partners continue to address child sexual abuse offending, and are already driving preventative messaging to children, young people and their parents/carers through the NCA’s Thinkuknow network, and charitable partners are sending preventative messaging for offenders. We are also working with these partners to sustain and optimise their response to mitigate the risk.