UK police fail to counter gangs sexually exploiting kids

By DANICA KIRKA
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — An independent inquiry says police and local authorities across the U.K. have failed to keep pace with the changing ways criminal gangs sexually exploit children. That has allowed the abuse to become an increasingly hidden and underreported problem. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse said in a report Tuesday that at a time when perpetrators are using mobile phones, social media and dating apps to groom younger children, bureaucratic responses are preventing victims from getting the help they need and obscuring the true scale of the problem.