Men turn for help to stop viewing child porn

estimated that as many as 50,000 individuals in the UK were involved in downloading or sharing sexual images of children but the National Police Chiefs Council Lead for Child Protection, Chief Constable Simon Bailey, said that at least 100,000 people in the UK were now regularly viewing online sexual images of children.

A conference was held in Wakefield yesterday to discuss the issue. It was organised by West Yorkshire Police and is called Safeguarding Children in the Digital World.

Child sexual abuse prevention expert and founder of Stop it Now! Donald Findlater said: “Over the past 14 years Stop it Now! has worked with thousands of sex offenders, including many men who had been arrested for viewing sexual images of under-18s online.

“We help them change their behaviour and get their lives back on a decent track. Most had not thought that others would ever find out, seeing their online lives as somehow separate from the real world. Few had considered the consequences of getting caught. Following arrest, their lives are often in turmoil.

“Imagine what it is like for a husband and father to have to tell his wife and children that he has been arrested for viewing sexual images of children online. To have to tell his mum and dad. Then having to tell his boss. And then his friends.

“Most have bitter regrets about the harm they have done to their families, to the victims in the images they viewed, and to themselves. But they also tell us they might never have stopped their illegal online behaviour if they’d not been caught.”