Abuse hotline Internet Watch Foundation sees most extreme year on record and calls for immediate action to protect very young children online.  Children under six are being manipulated into “disturbing” acts of sexual abuse while parents think they are playing safely on household devices, as a new Internet Watch Foundation report highlights the need for more protections online.

New data from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) reveals thousands of images and videos of three to six year old children who have been groomed, coerced and tricked into sexually abusive acts, are now being found on the open internet.

The Online Safety Act also needs to work because these online harms are getting worse. It is imperative that we all take this threat seriously and that we are all doing our bit to prevent the spread of new and previously unseen child sexual abuse imagery. We can’t afford to wait until these codes come in. The harms are happening to children now, and our response must be immediate.