Faroese police report rise in online grooming cases

Faroese police are receiving five to seven reports per week of potential online child exploitation, with some cases involving children as young as nine, national broadcaster Kringvarp Føroya reports.

Kári Jacobsen, head of the police investigation unit, said the force regularly handles cases referred by the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which flags possible online sexual abuse. Between one and three of these weekly cases may prove to be genuine, he noted.

Jacobsen described online grooming as a growing problem, with some incidents escalating rapidly. “There are examples where just 19 minutes pass from the start of online grooming to an image being sent,” he said.

While police conduct preventive work in schools and elsewhere, Jacobsen stressed that prevention remains the most effective tool against the issue. Cooperation with NCMEC has provided clearer insight into the scale of the problem in recent years.