Metropolitan Police: Online grooming ‘under reported’

Online grooming is “grossly under-reported” with many children unable to distinguish between internet and real-life friends, police believe.

Predatory paedophiles contact hundreds of children using social media, hoping to entice them into having sex, detectives from the Metropolitan Police’s Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command said as rapper Daniel Rodriguez who groomed schoolgirls was sentenced for 16 years.

Detective Superintendent John Macdonald said that men approaching young girls through social media is a “real risk” and something police are “particularly concerned about”.