• Login
• Register

• All Events
• Briefings
• eLearning
• Webinars
• Workshops & Seminars

North West Regional Organised Crime Unit Briefing - The COM Network

Online Harms -  The COM  Network

Com groups are made up of individuals who take part in and promote radically extreme behaviours online.

Offending by these groups features graphic and highly disturbing content being shared within their group communications.

Notably, this includes the targeted abuse and blackmail of young children, predominantly females.

 Victims of Com groups are coerced to perform sexual acts on camera, in addition to acts of extreme levels of self-harm. Subsequent blackmail of the victim is inevitably escalated, with evidence showing that victims have later gone on to sexually abuse their younger family members or cause harm to their family pets, all due to control and coercion.

Com groups operate across many social media platforms, but most prominently Discord, Signal and Telegram.

Offenders are predominantly teenage boys aged between 14- 17 years. Victims are predominately girls under 18.

Com group offending has increased significantly over the last 12 months and most police forces are now dealing with multiple Com group investigations.

 The session will cover the following: 

• What is the Com?
• What do Com Networks look like?
• Perpetrator characteristics
• Victim Characteristics
• How to perpetrators target people?
• How to Com groups work?
• Indicators of potential Com group activity
• Challenges
• Multi-Agency Response and Safeguarding

Professionals who work with young children need to have a good understanding of the nature of this offending so concerns can be raised and progressed at the earliest opportunity, to prevent significant harm.

 

Dates