By Lucy Caulkett-
Children are being encouraged to join a WhatsApp and Snapchat group potentially allowing them to view explicit material, according to police.
Officers found messages on social media website that have invited youngsters to “add everyone in your contacts except your parents”. Police now fear inappropriate and explicit content may be being sent to children through the group.
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Officers said the group is thought to have over 500 members, mostly children. The revelation is disturbing and calls for greater management of children by their parents. An investigation is underway to try to identify those behind the scenes trying to encourage children to view prohibited material. The age range of the children targeted has not been disclosed by police, neither has it been stated how the children were targeted.
Manipulators are often encouraged or even automatically added to explicit WhatsApp and Snapchat groups through a combination of social engineering, platform vulnerabilities, and psychological tactics used by bad actors. Children may be drawn to these groups out of a natural desire for community or curiosity about “adult” topics.
Groups like “Add Everyone You Know” go viral among students, presented as a “fun” activity or mystery to solve. Some children are attracted to anonymous chat spaces to escape the pressure of presenting their “best self” online.
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Harmful content is sometimes presented as humour or memes, making it seem acceptable to young users. Some groups warn children that if they leave the chat, they will be “found,” using intimidation to keep them present. The lowering of the minimum age for WhatsApp from 16 to 13 in 2024 has increased the pool of vulnerable young users.
Snapchat’s disappearing messages make it the primary platform for grooming (involved in 48% of cases), as it provides a false sense of security for sharing explicit content.
Psychologists say that perpetrators of such despicable practise say that perpetrators often send messages to hundreds of young people at once, waiting for any response. Adolescents may join inappropriate groups to “fit in” or avoid social rejection.
Groomers frequently make first contact on gaming apps before encouraging children to move to private, encrypted platforms like WhatsApp or Snapchat where abuse can proceed undetected.
Parents can protect children by adjusting WhatsApp privacy settings to “My Contacts” under Settings > Groups to prevent unknown third parties from adding them to groups.
Derbyshire Police added: “We believe that some of the content being shared within the group is explicit and that children who are group members will have been able to see it.
“The force is now issuing an online safety message after the group’s existence was reported to us by a Derbyshire resident.”
Detective Sergeant Sophie Draycott, of Derbyshire Constabulary’s Child Sexual Exploitation Investigation Unit, said: “Officers are advising parents and carers whose children use WhatsApp ad Snapchat to check the settings on the apps so that they cannot be added to groups by unknown third parties.
“We also want parents and carers to make themselves more aware of what content their children are viewing online and to check if they are part of this group.
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