The figures come from a freedom of information (FOI) request submitted to 35 police forces by the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children).

It found that a total of 33,000 offences where abuse images were collected and distributed were logged by the police during 2022-2023.

Alarmingly, the number of child abuse images recorded by UK police forces grew by 25% in the course of a year. Snapchat accounted for nearly half of all cases where an online platform was named, while Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were named in around a quarter of cases. 

The NSPCC also said this figure was up 79% since 2017-2018, and that 160,000 crimes had been recorded since then. 

“It’s alarming to see online child abuse continue to rise, especially when tech companies should be acting to make their sites safe by design ahead of incoming regulation,” said Peter Wanless, the NSPCC’s chief executive.

“Behind these crimes are children who have been targeted by adults who are able to organise and share sexual abuse with other offenders seamlessly across social media and messaging apps.”

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In a statement on the matter, reported by The Guardian a Snapchat spokesperson said: “Child sexual abuse is horrific and has no place on Snapchat. We use cutting-edge detection technology to find and remove this type of content, and work with police to support their investigations. Snapchat also has extra safety features for 13- to 17-year-olds, including pop-up warnings if they’re contacted by someone they don’t know.”

The revelation comes on the backdrop of the Online Safety Act being passed into law last year. The Act aims to make social media companies more responsible for the content published on their platforms. 

However, while there has been plans on how the Act will be carried out, and news on what Ofcom expects from companies,  they have yet to publish guidelines on how the laws will be enforced, meaning that it could take years for the measures to be fully implemented.