Boy, 13, downloaded almost 3,000 youngster abuse pictures on Telegram as NSPCC hits out at controversial messaging app

A 13-year-old boy downloaded nearly 3,000 thousand of depraved images of children being sexually abused on the controversial messaging app Telegram, with the NSPCC hitting out at the app and calling for more action from the firm.

The schoolboy launched the app on his mobile phone 639 times in seven months to access the material, downloading 2,595 vile images of which 1,788 were of the most serious category, a court heard.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was made the subject of an interim Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) by magistrates.

A SHPO is aimed at protecting the public from sex offenders and does not normally apply to children.

The boy, who is now 14, will need to register at a police station and comply with various conditions such as having his internet use restricted.

It comes as the NSPCC accused Telegram of ‘blinding themselves to harm’ taking place on the encrypted parts of the app – which allows messages only to be stored on devices and for them to self-destruct after a set period of time.

A spokesperson for the Home Office said it was ‘extremely concerning’ that a 13-year-old was able to download such material.

They said social media platforms such as Telegram ‘must do more’ to stop criminal activity on their sites.

Telegram in particular has come under fire as being a haven and a hotbed for child sexual predators.

Critics say Telegram has a far weaker system of moderating extremist and illegal content than other platforms and messenger apps.

The app’s CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France in August and charged with complicity in spreading child abuse images and drug trafficking and failing to comply with law enforcement.

Recently, Telegram bosses agreed to work with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a UK charity which is working to make the internet safer and protect child victims, to proactively prevent child sexual abuse imagery from being spread in public parts of its platform, but this does not cover encrypted parts of their app.

The new Online Safety Act, passed by the last government and set to be enforced from March, is designed to stop social media users accessing terrorist material and abuse images.

It will introduce strict age checking requirements to ensure users under 13 are not able to access the services.

A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘This government will not accept child sexual abuse on any online platform and UK law is clear – the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material is illegal.

‘The fact that a 14-year-old was able to download this content is extremely concerning and platforms must do more to ensure criminal activity cannot proliferate on their sites.

‘This government is committed to ensuring children are safe online and supports the robust implementation of the Online Safety Act. But we are prepared to use every lever to improve children’s safety online and we will not hesitate to go further if we need to.’

Richard Collard, associate head of policy for child safety online at the NSPCC, said: ‘We must remember that child sexual abuse material is a result of children being groomed, coerced, and exploited by their abusers.

‘It can be incredibly traumatising for victims to know that their images are being shared on social media by networks of offenders, without consequence.

‘Telegram cannot continue to blind themselves to harm taking place on the encrypted parts of their app. If they want to show they are committed to protecting children, they must be proactive in identifying and removing all illegal content from their platform.’

Magistrates in Poole, Dorset, heard the boy’s crimes only came to light when he was arrested on a separate unrelated offence and police seized and examined his mobile phone.

The offending started when he was just 13 and went on for seven months.

Jason Spelman, prosecuting, told the court the teen initially lied to police and said he had been sent a link by someone he didn’t know, clicked on it and all the images had downloaded at once.

But a forensic examiner found this was not true and the boy had launched the Telegram app 639 separate times and timings coincided with time stamps on the illegal photos and videos.

Mr Spelman said: ‘Category A is the most serious images and as you can see from the charges, it’s a huge number of Category A images. Some of them are the most serious in terms of what they depict – depravity I would say.

‘[The teenager] was arrested for a separate offence. During that investigation, his mobile was seized and examined and found to contain a large number of indecent images of children.

‘He initially stated someone he didn’t know sent him a link he clicked and it downloaded all the images. That account was established to be untrue since.’

Niall Theobald, defending, said there were ‘a lot of factors at play’ and the defendant had ADHD, language difficulties and a ‘lack of understanding’ about what he was getting involved with.

He said: ‘The lesson is learnt, you won’t see him before the courts again. It’s something he’s terribly ashamed of.’

The boy’s mother told the court he was ‘in a dark place’ and his parents could not cope with him at the time of offending. 

She added: ‘He has faced it, it’s been hard.’

The magistrates made an 18-month youth rehabilitation order with a supervision requirement, ten reparation days and prohibitive activities – making any device capable of storing images available to the Youth Justice Service or police for inspection on request and he must not delete the history on any such device.

They also decided to make the teenager subject to a SHPO.

Lead magistrate Caroline Foster said: ‘We believe this is serious enough for a community order considering what we have heard today.

‘We thought long and hard about imposing a SHPO. We took into consideration the nature of the offences, the number and level of images and the period of time, which in a young person’s life is a long time.

‘In the interests of justice we are going to impose an interim SHPO. In some ways it links to the prohibitive activities but this has got more teeth.

‘I cannot stress enough, if he was to break any of this it is really, really serious.’

The SHPO will be reviewed by a district judge later this month.

The family were also ordered to pay £111 costs.