More adults may develop a sexual interest in children if the tech industry doesn't take seriously the extent of abuse on its platforms, PA reported referring to British police officer Simon Bailey.
The major social media platforms are not investing enough in technology to prevent pedophiles from sharing images online, he said.
If the tech industry doesn't get serious about this, we will see an exponential increase in the number of images, continued abuse of children and an ever-growing number of people who are sexually interested in children, Bailey noted.
According to him, Facebook is the most commonly used platform for sharing obscene images, and yet thanks to their end-to-end encryption plans, they are now deliberately turning a blind eye to what is happening on their platforms.
Bailey said the UK has emerged as the leader in the world in tackling online abuse over the past seven years, but warned that there is still a lot of work to be done as the numbers continue to rise.
