Nearly 3,500 child sexual abuse images have been recorded by Police Scotland in the last five years.
Harrowing figures reveal a total of 3,419 child sexual abuse crimes logged by the force since 2019. And since 2023, they have reached record levels, with over 700 offences logged each year – 748 in 2023/24 and 765 in 2022/23.
Findings from a Freedom of Information Request (FOI) by the NSPCC showed nearly half of the crimes took place on Snapchat. A quarter took place on Meta platforms, including Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp.
Children’s welfare charities are now demanding the UK Government to take urgent action to reinforce Ofcom’s current approach to private messaging. The watchdog previously set out more than 40 new measures for social media giants to adhere to in order to protect young app users from abuse and exploitation.
But organisations including NSPCC and the Marie Collins Foundation say these measures must be reviewed and strengthened if the government is committed to tackling the threat to children’s safety online. The charities argue as it stands, children will not be protected from the worst forms of abuse on private messaging services under Ofcom’s plans, despite this being a core aim of the Online Safety Act.
Ofcom stated user-to-user services are only required to remove illegal content where it is ‘technically feasible’. This exception creates an “unacceptable” loophole – allowing some services to avoid delivering the most basic protections for children.
Aoife, 21, from East Kilbride, was exploited online when she was 15 by a man she met on Yubo. He pretended to be a teenager around her age and convinced her to download another app, Telegram, and then asked her to send him images of herself.
Then he blackmailed her with these, threatening to share them with all her friends and family on Facebook, to control her behaviour. When his demands became increasingly intense and frightening, Aoife recalled being told about the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP) at school and reported the images.
Through this, her school and then her parents were informed and supported her with reporting what happened to the police. The predator was eventually sentenced in 2022 following an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA).
Aoife has shared her own experience to offer advice to any children who experience online harm.
She said: “If a young person is asked to share an explicit image of themselves with someone online, I would say don’t do it! You might want to and think you know what you are doing, and that you’ll be safe but if you met them online you don’t know who that person is. For all you know they could be the opposite of who they say they are, so I would say – just don’t do it. It’s not worth the risk.
“If a young person has shared an image and they are being threatened, tell someone you trust whether that’s a parent, teacher or neighbour because they will look out for you and help. I would also say to anyone who experiences this – it’s not your fault. You are the victim.”
Chris Sherwood, NSPCC Chief Executive, said: “It is deeply alarming to see thousands of child sexual abuse image crimes recorded by Police Scotland in the past five years. These offences cause tremendous harm and distress to children, with much of this illegal material being repeatedly shared and viewed online. It is an outrage that in 2025 we are still seeing a blatant disregard from tech companies to prevent this illegal content from proliferating on their sites.
“Having separate rules for private messaging services lets tech bosses off the hook from putting robust protections for children in place. This enables crimes to continue to flourish on their platforms even though we now have the Online Safety Act.
“The Government must set out how they will take a bold stand against abuse on private messaging services and hold tech companies accountable for keeping children safe, even if it requires changes to the platform’s design – there can be no excuse for inaction or delay.”
Detective Chief Superintendent Sarah Taylor said: “The scale and scope of online child sexual abuse and exploitation continues to increase. We are committed to identifying offenders and bringing them to justice while working with partners to prevent this abuse and to protect children in Scotland and globally.”
The Record has approached the UK Government for comment.