Police forces across the South East are launching a deterrent campaign with a children protection charity in a bid to tackle the growing number of sexual images of children online.

Kent Police and four other police forces will work with The Lucy Faithfull Foundation to not only raises awareness of the problem but also educate offenders.

Through social media, posters and other public relations the campaign will drive home the consequences of offending, highlight how police are tackling the issue and offer help to stop such behaviour.

Scroll down to hear Donald Findlater, director of Stop It Now! helpline, speak about the new campaign.

This will be a branch off of Stop It Now!, a helpline launched by the charity in 2002 with a website added in 2015.

Donald Findlater, director of the helpline, said: “Alongside the police arresting more offenders, we have been working to help online offenders stop their illegal behaviour whether they’ve been arrested or not.

"Our specialist staff have helped thousands of offenders and family members over recent years.

"Every offender who stops, stops harming children."

Viewing and sharing indecent images of children online is a serious and growing problem.

In 2013, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) estimated 50,000 individuals in the UK were involved in downloading or sharing sexual images of children.

Police estimate the number of offenders has grown since then.

In 2018 the National Crime Agency estimated the figure to be 80,000.

But Stop It Now! is helping.

In Kent, there was a 46% increase in contact to the campaign from 2016 to 2018, with 695 online users in the county and 97 calls.

Recently receiving a £600,000 funding boost from the Home Office, the campaign will now get another boost from police support.

This follows The Lucy Faithfull Foundation working with police forces in the North West, when a similar campaign caused a significant increase in the number of people from the region seeking help to address their online behaviour.

It is hopeful that with the launch of this campaign today, the same will happen in the Kent.

Mr Findlater added: “Too many people, especially men across all age groups, seem to think it is okay to view sexual images of under 18s online. It is not.

"Not only is it illegal, it also causes great harm to the children in the images.

"Preventing the viewing of these images protects children."

To get help call 0808 1000 900 for confidential advice or click here.

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