An ITV News investigation finds that tens of thousands of children across the UK targeted on Snapchat, with offences including rape and sexual assault, as UK Editor Paul Brand reports
A warning this report contains distressing details.
The social media app Snapchat is being used by paedophiles and violent criminals to target thousands of children a year, an ITV News investigation has found.
Across 37 police forces, there were more than 100,000 offences involving the app over the past five years.
It’s not always clear how Snapchat was involved, but the crimes include multiple cases of rape and sexual assault.
Where police forces gave the age of the victims, six out of ten were children. The youngest was just seven years old.
Our findings come as the government considers banning social media apps for under-16s.
Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary, Liz Kendall, told ITV News that she felt “horror” and “fear” at the findings.
Giving the strongest hint yet that she would like to ban social media for under 16s, she said, “I think the reason why parents have been so supportive of a ban is because of the simplicity”.
Our investigation reveals how the online often transfers to the offline, with paedophiles repeatedly using Snapchat to locate children in real life.
Among recent victims was 11-year-old ‘Sophie’, whose name we have changed to protect her lifetime anonymity.
In 2022, she was sent explicit photographs by a user who called himself Tom Bailey and claimed to be 19.
It’s thought he had managed to find her via Snapmap, which allows users to search for other people – including children – in their area.
“Hope u like xxx,” he messaged out of the blue one morning before school as Sophie was getting ready, after sending her a photo of a man in his underwear.
“Like to see more xxx,” he added. “I’m in derby and 19 u?”
“I’m 11, go away,” Sophie’s family replied on her behalf, after she alerted them to what was happening.
“Oh nice,” her predator persisted, “My ex was 13 lol”.
“Bet your well fit,” he told her. “You done anything wiv a boy”.
“I’m 11 years old,” Sophie’s family replied again, hoping to warn him off.
“So loads are doing younger lol,” he said. “Once you had a play down between ya legs you would love it x”
“Have you seen a boy hard yet x”
“Like to see me x”
Sophie received a second image, this time of an erect penis.
“The messages carried on coming through quite quickly, and they were getting quite vile. It was crude and disgusting. I was physically sick,” Sophie’s mum told me.
Police managed to track down her predator, whose real name is Mark Rayworth – a 55-year-old paedophile who was working as a bathroom fitter.
He was arrested and convicted of attempting to engage in sexual activity with Sophie.
But because of Snapchat’s location feature, she became terrified that he would be able to track her down.
“It was quite scary,” she told me. “It made me really paranoid even to go out with family. I was worried that he would be upset that I’d told people, that he’d hurt my family for reporting it.”
Sophie’s parents had to install CCTV at their house to reassure her.
“I don’t see that there’s any need for maps to be on any apps that children access,” her mum told me. “Anyone can locate them. I don’t see how that serves any purpose to any child.”
It is possible to turn the location settings off on Snapchat, but parents have told us that they didn’t even realise the function existed in the first place.
Already in 2026, dozens of paedophiles have been sentenced for targeting children via the app, some using it to locate their victims in real life.
In April, 27-year-old Kieron Oldham from Barnsley pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl after tracking her location on Snapchat to a local park.
In February, 31-year-old Ross Brogan from Glasgow was jailed after adding children at random on Snapchat before offering payment for explicit photos and then blackmailing them to elicit more.
He went on to sexually abuse one 13-year-old boy in person.
And in May, 35-year-old Siah Riley from Derby was jailed after grooming more than 150 children online, including on Snapchat.
With more than 20 million users in the UK, Snapchat is one of the most widely used social media platforms.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) told ITV News it is this popularity – particularly with children – that attracts its offenders.
In 2025, the NCA saw 92,000 self-referred cases of potential child abuse from tech companies – and that figure has increased this year.
Last month alone, there were 400 referrals each day – and 100 of those came from Snapchat.
“Snapchat is obviously one of the most popular platforms for children… But as a result it is absolutely used by offenders and all the time,” says NCA Director General Graeme Biggar.
“This is a company that we work with. They have made changes to their platform. But even with those changes there’s 100 referrals a day – more has to happen.”
ITV News has learnt that paedophiles are even using Snapmap to target children while they are at school, with the location function helping them to identify particular hotspots where minors are interacting on the app.
Last month, a school in northern England wrote to parents, warning them that a user was targeting multiple pupils.
Among them was 12-year-old Zara (not her real name), whose mother received an email from staff, alerting her that the school “has become aware of a man in his 20s called Max making and trying to make contact with younger girls”, including Zara.
“It took me about four days to get access to her phone,” her mother told me.
“She just shut off completely, like she was in trouble. Then she kind of opened up.”
Zara told her mother that the unknown user had asked her for pictures. At first, they were requests for photos of what she was eating or where she was, as well as pictures of her family.
But eventually, she was asked for sexual photos of herself.
Zara’s mother was devastated to learn that her daughter had sent one.
“I was overwhelmed with fear, sick and guilt,” her mum said. “I had no idea what was going on”.
Both Zara and her mum are terrified that the photograph might still be in circulation.
“I’ve always tried to protect my kids from the monsters on the outside,” Zara’s mum told me. “But actually the whole time the monster was actually in my home, in my children’s bedroom, on their phones”.
“If I had my way, the app would be gone. Deleted, gone, banned,” she said.
Subscribe for free to our weekly newsletter for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning.
Earlier this week, the government announced that it would fine tech companies unless they stop children from taking, sharing and viewing nude photographs of themselves.
In May, Ofcom – which regulates online platforms – also announced that Snapchat had promised to make changes to its app to stop adults from contacting children.
But parents have told us that they do not trust tech companies to implement the changes and want social media apps – particularly Snapchat – banned for children.
It sounds as if the secretary of state agrees.
“We’ll be coming forward with our proposals imminently,” Liz Kendall told me.
“But I think about parents who are crying out for help. They want to do the right thing, they want to make sure their children are safe, but it’s really difficult to keep on top of all of these apps. So I think the reason why parents have been so supportive of a ban is because of the simplicity. It’s a clear message about expectations.”
Others, including the National Crime Agency and the children’s charity the NSPCC, worry that children will circumvent a ban and believe it would be better to improve safety on apps by removing certain features.
Rather than a strict social media ban, the NCA have instead proposed tech giants redesign the features that put its users at risk – such as the mass discoverability of children and weak age verification processes.
“It’s the features that are most important to address. Remove those dangerous features or make them safe and then you could have an online environment that’s safe for children. That’s what we see from our law enforcement perspective.”
“We are arresting over a thousand people each and every month who are committing this kind of abuse [on social media apps] and safeguarding 1,200 children each and every month, but it’s a huge challenge and we need to turn off the tap that is allowing it to happen.”
But Liz Kendall does not seem to think that change can be left up to the tech companies.
“They’ve had their chance,” she said. “Time and time and time again, they’ve have had a chance to put this right. The question isn’t if we’re going to act, it’s how.”
In response to our investigation, Snapchat told us, “The stories shared by these families are devastating. Sexual exploitation is an abhorrent crime, and we are working hard to combat it, including by continuously evolving our safety mechanisms as criminals change their tactics.
“We also work closely with the police and safety experts to keep activity like this off our platform and to bring criminals to justice. Our goal is to create a safe environment for our community.”
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
