Victims also snared on live streaming sites

PAEDOPHILES are targeting young children on live streaming sites, Barnardo’s warns.

This is due to the popularity of apps like Tik Tok and Live.ly, says the children’s charity.

Previously, the youngest children to call the charity for help after being sexually exploited online were aged ten.

But now it is being contacted by eightyear-olds who have been groomed by predators using the comments’ function on live videos. A poll last year found more than one in four ten-year-olds had live streamed content using apps meant for people over 13.

Barnardo’s chief executive Javed Khan said: ‘Without the right security settings, children broadcasting live video of themselves over the internet could be targeted by abusers in their bedrooms.’