Alarming spike in children being accused of sex crimes in Victoria

Children using smartphones from an earlier age is believed to be linked to a jump in the rate of sexual offences committed by young offenders in Victoria.

There has been a 119 per cent increase in miscellaneous sexual offences.

Kids as young as 10 are behind an alarming spike in sex crimes committed by young offenders in the past year.

The latest Victorian crime data reveals a 28 per cent jump in alleged sexual offences committed by kids in just a 12-month period, with more than one alleged offence recorded a day.

Experts say image-based abuse and ‘sextortion’ were a major contributor to the spike, with children getting access to smartphones at a younger age.

There was a 119 per cent increase in miscellaneous sexual offences which include online sexual exploitation and the distribution of child pornography.

The Herald Sun last month revealed that more than 100 explicit and private videos and photos of underage school students were being shared to social media.

Several pages have been created online in recent months to share the illegal content without students’ permission as the illegal online content spirals out of control.

It’s understood many revenge porn victims – boys and girls – are students in Melbourne’s southeast and inner east.

Monash University’s social work researcher Dr Susan Baidawi said children being given access to smartphones at an earlier age was likely a contributing factor to the rise in crime.

“A category of offending among children that has been increasing in concern is the use of this image-based sexual abuse and sexual offending,” she said.

“Which relates to either producing, taking or threatening to distribute the images of another person that are of an intimate or sexual nature.

“That would be one of the clearest examples I’ve seen that could probably explain some of this data.

“Children have access to smartphones at a time when many of us that grew up in decades gone by did not.

“They’re developing their capacity to control their behaviour, to morally develop, and they’re exposed to all manners of other behaviours on the internet and elsewhere.”

Children aged 10 to 17 allegedly committed 38 sex offences against other children to also reach a five-year high.

Dr Baidawi said children pressuring others in their age group to send intimate pictures then using them as blackmail was of major concern.

“We’ve seen a lot of research that comes out of young people feeling pressure to supply these (pictures) to one another, (there’s) a lot of social pressure, particularly in teenage years,” she added. “So this can lead to a whole manner of problems, which police have for some time struggled to deal with because effectively it is the creation of underage pornography.”

But while sex crimes overall were up, the number of rapes — 77 within 12 months — were at a five-year low.

Between 2018 and 2019, children allegedly committed 129 rapes in Victoria.

It comes after a boy, 13, was this month slapped with serious charges after he allegedly sexually assaulted a 28-year-old woman who was running along the Dandenong Creek trail.

Police allege the boy, whose age would indicate he had recently left primary school, laid on top of his victim and tried to remove her clothes before fleeing on his bike.

The boy was bailed to face a children’s court at a later date.

Originally published as Alarming spike in children being accused of sex crimes in Victoria