THE NSPCC has called for Child Online Safety to be prioritised after a record number of grooming crimes were recorded by the PSNI.
The number of offences of sexual communication with a child has increased by 139 per cent in the last three years.
There were 196 of the offences recorded between April 2020 and March this year compared to 82 in 2017/18.
Of the 196 offences in 2020/21, 78 per cent were known to be females with the youngest victim only five years old.
There has been a year on year increase since the first recording the data in 2016/17 after the change in the law.
The charity yesterday warned that many offenders are exploiting risky design features on apps popular with children, such as Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram.
The Northern Ireland branch of the charity is calling on the Executive to prioritise child online safety by funding and fully implementing the Online Safety Strategy and Action Plan without delay.
Natalie Whelehan, Policy and Public Affairs Manager for NSPCC Northern Ireland, said: "Police-recorded offence statistics do not reflect the total number of sexual offences being committed against children, however they do provide an important part of the picture.
"They also help us to understand the sheer scale of the problem that the police are trying to tackle," she said.
"To respond to the size and complexity of the threat, the government must put child protection front and centre of its response to tackling online abuse.
"Child safety must be the yardstick against which the actions of our government is judged and robust measures are needed now to keep children truly safe today and in the future".
