Online child exploitation doubles in New Zealand since 2019

Thursday, June 9th, 2022

The number of victims – and perpetrators – of online child exploitation in New Zealand has more than doubled since 2019, mirroring a global spike in offending since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Data obtained by Stuff from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which refers cases to New Zealand agencies when either victim or offender is believed to be located here, revealed 9971 referrals were made in 2021.

That’s a 51 per cent spike on the year earlier figure of 6602, and a staggering 281 per cent increase from 2016 with 2614 referrals. Read more

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News category: New Zealand, News Shorts.

Tags: Child expoitation, National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), Online child exploitation

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