New data from National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) has revealed that online grooming crimes have increased more than twice since it was first made an offence in 2017, carrying 2 years of potential jail time.

The figures compiled by NSPCC via Freedom of Information Requests from Dyfed Powys, Gwent, North Wales and South Wales police forces revealed a total of 554 Sexual Communication with a Child offences were recorded in 2023/24 which more than double the 274 recorded in 2017/18.

Not just Wales, but data compiled by NSPCC found that online grooming is on the rise across the UK. It showed that since 2017/18, such crimes have increased by 86% in 6 years.

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Online Grooming Crimes in Wales Between 2017/19 and 2023/24

Police Force

2017/18

 2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2023/24

Dyfed Powys

19

 41 39 34 36 30 67

Gwent

 44 26 144 n/a 26 58 67

North Wales

 53 103 105 114 98 101 97

South Wales

 158 140 91 127 166 n/a 333

Online grooming crimes between 2017/18 and 2023/24 as recorded by UK police across country

2017/18

2018/19

2019/20

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2023/24

Total

3728

5333

5954

6319

6275

6350

7062

41,021

NSPCC findings showed that Snapchat was present in almost half (48%) of the 1,824 grooming cases where the specific platform was recorded by police, making it the most used app for such crimes. Meta platforms also feature in the list, with Whatsapp appearing in 12% of the cases, Facebook and Messenger in 10%, and Instagram in about 6%, taking Meta’s total share to 28%. Kik, also featured in the top, being used in 5% of the cases.

A majority of the victims of grooming are girls making up 81% of the total recorded cases in the UK where the gender was known in 2023/24.

A Snapchat spokesperson said: “Any sexual exploitation of young people is horrific and illegal and we have zero tolerance for it on Snapchat. If we identify such activity, or it is reported to us, we remove the content, disable the account, take steps to prevent the offender from creating additional accounts, and report them to the authorities. We have extra protections including in- app warnings to make it difficult for teens to be contacted by strangers, and our in-app Family Centre lets parents see who their teens are talking to, and who their friends are.”