Police ‘overwhelmed’ by child sex abuse image cases call for new approach as thousands of paedophiles seek help

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Police leaders have called for a new approach to the rising number of people who view child sex abuse images online, as thousands of paedophiles seek help to stop their behaviour. “That change needs to be a cross-system approach including educating children at home and school about the risks online, ensuring tech companies deliver on their responsibilities to prevent the uploading and sharing of images, and applying conditional cautions to low-risk offenders whereby they have to confront their offending behaviour.” The Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a child abuse prevention charity, is among those running programmes for people wanting to stop viewing indecent images. The National Crime Agency estimates that around 80,000 people in the UK regularly view images of child sexual abuse online “Some men say they’ve been looking at pornography for a long time and they’ve become desensitised, so start looking for more and more extreme images,” she said. Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The Lucy Faithfull Foundation has been granted £600,000 in Home Office funding and in March, Sajid Javid gave the charity his full support, adding: “It’s vital we take action against child sexual abuse on a number of fronts.” The National Crime Agency estimates that around 80,000 people in the UK are regularly viewing images of child sexual abuse online and director Rob Jones has called for a “wider approach”.