THE teenage rape victim who has spoken out against a judge’s decision to spare her rapists prison sentences should be commended for her courage.

The sentencing of child offenders — as these were — is difficult. But it is hard to escape the sense that our judicial system treats violence against women and girls with less than necessary seriousness — particularly given the government has itself recognised this as a national emergency.

The crime should be placed in the context of rising violence against girls by boys — children — as well as men and the role social media and online pornography play in it. This is a society-wide crisis that must be tackled on that basis.

That means changes in education policy, internet regulation, policing and judicial approaches, public spending and even foreign policy in an age where amoral, profit-seeking Big Tech dominates the White House.

The child victim, who is now 16, was lured to an underpass by a boy she had been corresponding with on Snapchat and raped by him and another boy. The boys filmed the assault on their phones. They have also been convicted of raping another victim in association with a third child rapist, and filmed that attack too.

These rapes were meant to be shared and bragged about in a misogynist culture that celebrates violence against women and girls. The repeat attacks, and the obvious intention to circulate them, show the offenders are an ongoing danger.

Judge Nicholas Rowland says he wanted to avoid criminalising the rapists because of their young age, but failing to imprison them has consequences too. It encourages a “boys will be boys” attitude that relativises male violence against girls.

The victim says she wonders what the point was in going through the ordeal of the trial if her attackers will not be punished. The Crime Survey for England and Wales found that fewer than one in six rape victims reported their rape to the police; common reasons were embarrassment, fear of humiliation and believing the police would not help.

The proportion of rapes reported to the police resulting in a charge or summons is tiny: 2.6 per cent in 2024. This is a massively under-reported and under-prosecuted crime. If those who do come forward and — in the words of French serial rape victim Giselle Pelicot — fight for “shame to change sides” see their attackers walk free, it discourages others from showing the same bravery.

We need hardly add that a political system that imprisons climate and Palestine protesters for years for damaging property, while failing to jail rapists for the lasting harm they do to women and girls, has a sick sense of priorities.

But it is not just about sentencing. Proven sexual offences by children rose 47 per cent in 2023-24 and have kept rising: evidence from the Children’s Commissioner tying this to universal access to online pornography cannot be ignored.

Nor can calls, including from National Education Union general secretary Daniel Kebede, for a ban on social media access for under-16s which he has tied to the effect viewing pornography has on boys’ attitudes and behaviour towards girls.

The “mainstreaming” of online porn and also prostitution, which as Nordic Model Now points out has had a “catastrophic impact on men’s behaviours and attitudes” — a UN study found having paid for sex was the second most significant common factor in the background of rapists, while a US one determined men who pay for sex are eight times more likely to commit rape than other men — are elephants in the room which we ignore at our peril.

A whole-society approach to eliminating violence against women and girls must involve taking rape more seriously as an offence — but also address the commodification of women that fuels male entitlement. This cannot be done while excusing violence against women as a spectator sport online or a commercial activity.