TikTok and Snapchat predators grooming Torbay kids as young as nine | #childpredator | #onlinepredator | #sextrafficing


Children as young as nine are being targeted for criminal and sexual exploitation in Torbay, according to shocking new figures. Many of the youngsters are being groomed for organised crime through ‘wonderful but awful’ mobile phone apps such as TikTok and Snapchat, councillors have been told.

More than 170 children in Torbay are currently being monitored by the area’s exploitation team, and specialists say criminals are extending their reach among primary age children. Examples of crime include stealing mopeds and other vehicles to be used by drug dealers, supplying drugs and joining the ‘county lines’ network which brings money, narcotics and even weapons into the bay.

Members of a council overview and scrutiny board, set up specifically to spotlight issues affecting children and young people, heard that the county lines links between Torbay and the West Midlands are particularly strong. This week the board heard updates from service manager Ellie Clark, who said children often failed to realise that they were being groomed for exploitation.

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A report to the meeting said 173 children are currently being monitored, 87 boys, 83 girls and three identifying as transgender. A total of 132 children are identified as vulnerable to criminal exploitation, 76 to sexual exploitation and 35 to both. Most are aged 15 or 16, but some are of primary school age and the numbers aged from 10 to 12 were rising.

“TikTok and Snapchat are ‘wonderful but awful’ apps”, she said. “They can be used for fabulous things, but they can be used in other ways as well,” she added.

“It’s a really complex thing – the depth of the connection that children have in their online relationships, the way it becomes like another limb, the need to be on social media because everyone else is on it. It’s a really difficult chain to break.



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