1,000 suspected paedophiles being arrested every month

Police Arresting 1,000 Suspected Child Abuse Offenders a Month, NCA Warns

Wednesday 18 February 2026 | 01:06 | UK

Police are arresting around 1,000 suspected child sexual abuse offenders every month as the scale of the threat continues to grow, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned.

Rob Jones, the NCA’s director of general operations, said online communities are enabling offenders to connect with “like-minded” individuals, with algorithms helping to bring them together and reinforce harmful behaviour.

While some activity takes place on the dark web, mainstream social media platforms are also being used as “discovery” spaces to identify and target vulnerable children, he said.

The situation was described as “incredibly damaging”, with Mr Jones urging society to confront offending behaviour rather than allow it to be normalised online.

Arrests and Charges

The NCA said arrests have increased significantly — from between 500 and 800 per month a few years ago to about 1,000 per month now.

During one week in January alone, the NCA and police forces across the UK made 252 arrests, with 118 individuals charged. In the same period, 35 people were sentenced and 407 children were safeguarded, according to the agency.

The NCA also reported that referrals from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have roughly doubled over the past three years.

Evolving Online Threat

Investigators warned of a rise in offenders paying for the abuse of children to be livestreamed, sometimes for relatively small sums of money.

The agency also highlighted so-called “Com groups” — online communities that encourage and gamify abuse — where members reportedly push one another to commit increasingly serious crimes.

Calls for Tech Firms to Act

Becky Riggs, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for child protection and abuse investigations, said officers were working “relentlessly” to target offenders.

However, she said technology companies must “act with urgency” to ensure their platforms are hostile environments for abusers.

She also urged parents, carers and teachers to learn the warning signs that a child may be at risk and to maintain open conversations about online safety.

Government Response

The warning comes as the government announced plans for a sweeping crackdown on technology companies aimed at protecting children from illegal content online.

Measures are expected to target illegal material generated using artificial intelligence and could include the introduction of stricter age-verification rules for social media platforms.

Authorities say tackling online child abuse will require coordinated efforts from law enforcement, tech firms and wider society to prevent further harm.