CHILD-ON-CHILD sex abuse is increasing because adult content is available 24/7, a top cop said yesterday.
Assistant Chief Constable Becky Riggs said streaming giants had rendered the 9pm watershed redundant.
Smartphones have made it possible to watch explicit shows and films “whenever you feel like”, she added.
Ms Riggs spoke out as a report revealed 115,489 child sexual exploitation incidents were recorded in the past year.
Of these, 4,228 involved groups of two or more — with almost half the suspects, where age was known, between ten and 17.
A further nine per cent of cases — 430 — involved suspects under ten.
Ms Riggs, of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, told its summit that, in her childhood, material “of a certain type” was not played before 9pm.
She said: “What digital and mobile phones and online have provided is 24/7 ability to access these things whenever you feel like.”
She said it was “not too difficult” for kids to lie about their age to gain access which was not “protected from them, like it was”.
The report added 76 per cent of child abuse perpetrators overall were men and 78 per cent of victims were girls.
National Crime Agency boss Graeme Biggar said last week that criminals were creating a market for child rape and sexual assault by viewing images and videos of it online.
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