Channel 4 News forced to stop using Facebook to protect staff after child abuse videos flood inbox

Channel 4 News was forced to stop using its Facebook page after it was inundated with videos showing the sexual abuse of a young girl.

More than 40 copies of the illegal clip were sent to the broadcaster’s Facebook Messenger inbox after it spread through the social network from the US, according to the Times.

The images were so shocking that Channel 4 News was forced to stop updating its Facebook page for three days to protect staff who might accidentally glimpse it, the paper said.

A Channel 4 News spokesperson said: “We immediately reported this matter to the police and are liaising with Facebook to establish how this could have happened, and what measures are being taken to prevent this ever happening again.”

Facebook asked Channel 4 News to send over links to the videos, but the team refused “for fear of breaching laws against the dissemination of child pornography,” the Times said.

The abuse clips were received on Friday morning and only confirmed as deleted on Monday, after Facebook and police had visited the broadcaster’s offices.

Facebook said it acted “as swiftly as possible” to block the video after thousands of users shared a link to it in a bid to identify the perpetrator.

It said the clip was not automatically blocked by its Photo DNA detection software as they had not previously been flagged as illegal.

A man from Detroit has been charged with sexually abusing three under-age girls, The Times reported.

Picture: Reuters/Phil Noble