A children's charity has blamed 'vile' bullying for a rise in hate crimes against children.

Dame Esther Rantzen, head of the NSPCC's Childline service, made the comments as it emerged police in Kent dealt with 283 reports of incidents against youngsters in 2015/16 and 2016/17.

These offences were found to have a racial, religious or faith-based element.

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It comes as the charity has revealed it has given 2,699 counselling sessions nationally about race and faith bullying in the last three years.

Childline president, Dame Esther Rantzen, said: "Bullying of any kind is vile, but targeting someone because of the colour of their skin, religious beliefs or their accent is simply unacceptable.

"Children are taking on board prejudices around race and religion in society and trading them as playground insults, with extremely harmful results.

"Young people should be encouraged to be proud of who they are.

"Racial bullying can be hard to cope with but young people need to know they don’t have to carry this burden alone.

"Childline is here for all young people and talking to someone might help them find a way to deal with the situation."

In 2015/16 police in Kent recorded 131 hate crimes against under 18-year-olds with a racial, religious or faith factor.

And in 2016/17 there were 152.

To help combat this, Childline has launched a campaign called 'Understand Me'.

It challenges xenophobia and prejudice and encourages children to call out discrimination.

Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, said: "It’s heartbreaking to think that some children are targeted by bullies because of their race, culture or nationality.

"Racist jokes and negative stereotyping can be hurtful and leave young people feeling isolated and ashamed of who they are or where they are from.

"Our Understand Me campaign aims to reach out to all children who are experiencing racial or faith based bullying and make sure they know that they are not alone.

"No child should suffer in silence and anyone being targeted must be supported to tell someone and ask for help."

Across Britain there were 4,695 offences against youngsters in the past three years.