Police data shows that online grooming offences have increased significantly since 2018.1 Part of the risk to children’s safety is perpetrators’ ability to move conversations from public forums, such as social media or gaming platforms, to private messaging spaces or end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) channels, where messages are only accessible to the sender and recipient.
Regulatory gaps in the Online Safety Act also mean that private messaging services have fewer protections for children than public spaces, leading to fears that harms will migrate from public spaces into private ones.
Research was commissioned by the NSPCC to highlight and analyse the existing and emerging technological solutions tech platforms can use to prevent, detect and disrupt grooming and online abuse.
The research was conducted by PUBLIC, a digital transformation partner for the public sector. It included an in-depth literature review and a series of interviews and workshops with 25 experts working across tech, academia, research and civil society.
The research report aims to equip policymakers, regulators and the tech industry with an evidence-based framework that supports strategic, collaborative action to protect children online.
The NSPCC’s response to the report includes a set of policy solutions and suggested next steps for tech companies, Ofcom and the UK Government.
Authors: NSPCC and PUBLIC
References
NSPCC (2024) Online grooming crimes against children increase by 89% in six years. [Accessed 05/11/2025].
