Police in Scotland target online networks forcing children to self harm

Detectives in Scotland have joined an international law enforcement operation targeting online gangs that groom and coerce children into acts of self-harm, the BBC reported on October 30. The perpetrators belong to loose networks of sadists who mostly target girls through social media and gaming platforms. [1]

According to the BBC, police officers are hunting members of a network known as The Com. The network is mostly comprised of teenage and young adult males who have grown in prominence in recent years through sextortion, hacking, and encouragement of self-harm. [1]

Government reviews previously identified past failures by British institutions in preventing and prosecuting group-based child sexual exploitation between the 1990s and 2010s. The BBC noted that police have made one arrest so far in the current investigation. [1][2]