Childlight, hosted by the University of Edinburgh and established by the Human Dignity Foundation, said Police Scotland plays a vital role in holding perpetrators to account and preventing further abuse against children but that the issue is too big for law enforcement alone.
The figures are based on Childlight’s Into The Light project which examines the prevalence of online child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEA).
Childlight’s director of data Professor Deborah Fry will say on STV that police only “see the tip of the iceberg”, adding: “We know from all the research we’ve done that many children will never tell anyone and the abuse will remain hidden.”
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Paul Stanfield, chief executive of Childlight, tells Scotland Tonight: “I’ve been approached by people who have kept (experiences of child abuse) to themselves for over 50 years.
“They’re not going to the police to report it but they’re telling me and they’re only beginning to tell their families today after 50 years.
“Unfortunately at the moment, because there’s no regulation on the internet, it really is the Wild West – anything goes.
“(Social media is) a key enabler and (offending has) grown exponentially as a result of it. Child sex offenders have been provided with a platform by which they can come together.”
The data uses the 2022 census, and suggests that of 755,914 Scottish children aged 5-17, 150,000 are estimated to have been victims of non-consensual taking, sharing or exposure to sexual images in the last year alone – enough children to fill Hampden stadium nearly three times over.
Childlight also estimates that nearly 90,000 children in Scotland (12%) have experienced online solicitation in the past year, such as unwanted sexual talk which can include non-consensual sexting, unwanted sexual questions and unwanted sexual act requests by adults or other youths.
In contrast, only 2,055 cases of online CSEA were reported to Police Scotland between April 2023 and March 2024.
Online CSEA can take many forms, including sexual extortion, where predators blackmail victims, demanding money to keep images private, and AI-generated deepfake images.
Childlight also says that based upon a sample of UK men, 7% confessed to engaging in online sexual offending behaviours with children during their lifetime.
The group estimated through this data that 76,000 men in Scotland (2.9%) have deliberately viewed child sexual abuse material online at some point in their adulthood, and around 100,000 men (3.7%) will have flirted or had sexual conversations with a child under 18 online.
It also said nearly 37,000 (1.4%) have engaged in sexually explicit webcamming with a child under the age of 18, and 53,000 (2%) have paid for online sexual interactions, images or videos involving children aged under 18.
The organisation says the true figures are likely to be higher as they rely on the self-reporting of men completing a survey about their online behaviours.
It says police play a vital role in holding perpetrators to account, ensuring they cannot act with impunity and go on to abuse more children.
It notes that Alexander McCartney, who abused at least 70 children online and drove one girl to suicide, was caught after a 13-year-old girl reported him to Police Scotland – triggering a global investigation that led to a life sentence.
But it says the scale of the problem means it is not one police can arrest their way out of, arguing that prevention is key to addressing the issue.
Police Scotland was contacted for comment.
