A charity protecting children in Burton and South Derbyshire from abuse has warned over the "Wild West Web" after an investigation found Facebook and apps owned by the social media giant are used in 52 per cent of grooming cases.
The probe by the NSPCC found that victims as young as two were being targeted by online predators, prompting the charity to call on culture secretary Matt Hancock to introduce tough new regulations on Facebook and its apps.
In the first nine months of the launch of a new offence of sexual communication with a child, there were 1,628 crimes recorded in England and Wales, with police revealing which platforms were used in a total of 956 cases.
Facebook and apps it owns, Instagram and Whatsapp, were used in 52 per cent of those cases, with Facebook the most recorded site overall, police have revealed.
In Derbyshire, police recorded 20 offences, with four involving the use of the social media giant and its affiliated apps, with the youngest victim aged just nine.
Meanwhile, Staffordshire Police recorded a total of 28 offences of sexual communication with a child over that period, with 11 involving Facebook, Instagram or Whatsapp use, and seven involving Snapchat.
Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, has heralded the end of the "Wild West Web" but the NSPCC is urging him to follow through by bringing in a regulator to force social networks to introduce measures aimed at keeping children safe.
The information was provided by figures obtained via Freedom of Information requests to police forces across England and Wales and showed the number of cases where groomers used Facebook to make contact with children, including a case which recorded a two-year-old victim.
Peter Wanless, NSPCC chief executive, said: "Culture Secretary Matt Hancock has a golden opportunity to put an end to the 'Wild West Web' and force social networks to protect children online.
"Facebook should be leading the way, but instead it has demonstrated time and again that self-regulation isn’t working and social networks can’t be left to mark their own homework.
"Mr Hancock could be the person who makes the internet a safer place, for every child now and in the future. We hope he seizes the chance to do that."
For the past 10 years social networks have been allowed to self-regulate, but are accused of consistently failing to take the necessary action needed to keep children safe.
The NSPCC is calling on Mr Hancock to go further and bring in a mandatory code to regulate social networks so that grooming can be prevented, rather than relying on police to intervene after harm has already been done.
As part of its #WildWestWeb campaign the NSPCC is calling for Mr Hancock to bring in an independent regulator for social networks with fining powers, a mandatory code which introduces Safe Accounts for children, grooming alerts using algorithms and fast-tracking of reports to moderators which relate to child safety.
The charity also wants to see mandatory transparency reports forcing social networks to disclose how many safety reports they get, and how they deal with those reports.
Antigone Davis, global head of safety at Facebook, said: "We have a zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation on Facebook. We have the technology to scan images on Facebook and flag known child exploitative material so we can quickly remove it."
