BBC documentary 'Hunting the Online Sex Predators’ features IJM’s work to stop livestreamed child abuse
Online Sexual Exploitation of Children (OSEC)
February 2025
You can now watch a new BBC documentary, ‘Hunting The Online Sex Predators’ – featuring IJM’s work to stop online child sexual abuse and an IJM-supported survivor called Cassie*.
Following on from BBC’s ‘Hunting the Catfish Crime Gang’, which featured IJM’s work to stop forced scamming in 2023, this new documentary with entrepreneur and presenter James Blake explores a different but equally shocking form of online crime.
Watch the documentary on BBC iPlayer now or watch live on BBC Three at 9pm on Wednesday 26th February 2025 to see ‘cybersex’ crime explored from all angles and the UK’s shocking role in it. Please be aware that you may find some footage upsetting:
Online sexual abuse and exploitation is a brutal crime where children, often in the Philippines, are abused for paying sex offenders around the world to watch online. Sometimes the abuse is even livestreamed.
Distressingly, men from the UK are some of the biggest consumers of online content exploiting children. In ‘Hunting the Online Sex Predators’, a British former journalist is sentenced for offences against girls aged nine to 16.
James meets IJM Philippines lawyers, including Attorney Praise Ladrigan, working on the frontline to stop this crime and joins an operation with IJM investigators and trained police.
James also meets Cassie, who was trafficked and abused from the age of 12 until IJM helped police bring her to safety.
Today, Cassie is passionate about protecting other children – even travelling to the UK last year to speak to MPs at a Parliamentary roundtable in Westminster.
“I can’t begin to understand what Cassie has gone through, but she’s moved on and is focused on helping others.” - James Blake
It’s estimated that nearly half a million children in the Philippines were abused to create new child sexual exploitation materials in 2022 alone. That’s one in every 100 children.
So far, IJM has helped police bring over 1,400 children and vulnerable adults like Cassie to safety. With your support, we’ll keep going until every child like Cassie is safe and free.
Donate now to help stop this crime >>
*Pseudonym