Young footballers at Everton have been targeted by paedophiles on Snapchat.
The Goodison Park club’s head of safeguarding revealed that youngsters are being preyed on the social media app by men posing as talent scouts and agents.
Adam Green admitted that concerns were first raised at a session Everton ran with the Internet Watch Foundation, which works to eliminate child sexual abuse.
He told the Guardian that promising players receive messages from anonymous people on Snapchat claiming to be talent spotters and agency representatives.
“On Snapchat it just says a name like Ben at the top,” said Green.
“[The message says]: ‘I’m from an agency representing players from Manchester and London, and we have offices in both places and we’ve been watching you with interest, following you, and we’re interested in signing you for this agency. Don’t tell your dad. Don’t tell your club’.”
Green has also warned that players were being exploited for ‘sextortion’ with gangs attempting to gain sexually explicit pictures before blackmailing them.
“There have been cases coming to court of academy footballers from all different clubs [being] told that they had to pay £50,000 if they don’t want their penis pictures sent all over the internet”, he added.
Everton have seen a sharp increase in the number of cases being reported with 126 statements taken in the past year compared to 75 in the previous year.