THE internet was used as a grooming tool by child abusers to commit 85 sex crimes against children in West Mercia last year.

A total of 85 offences was reported in West Mercia in 2015/16, including sexual activity with children under 13 and grooming according to figures supplied by charity the NSPCC.

This is the first time police have been required to record - ‘cyber flag’ - any sexual crime against a child that involved the use of the internet and highlights a worrying trend, with an average of eight crimes a day being reported across England and Wales.

Most victims were 13-year-olds, with 21 in West Mercia. Ten victims were aged 10 and under.

Across England and Wales, 3,186 offences had the cyber flag.

In results from 38 police forces responding to a Freedom of Information request submitted by the NSPCC, there were 272 victims under ten and the youngest was a one-year-old baby.

The troubling figures are revealed today as the NSPCC launches its state of the nation annual report How Safe Are Our Children? at the charity’s annual conference in London.

With children spending more time online and using social media the NSPCC is urging police forces to ensure all officers understand when to apply the cyber-flag to sex crimes, so that they are recording and investigating them effectively.

Sandra McNair, NSPCC West Midlands head of service, said: “These figures confirm our fears that the online world is playing a significant role in the sexual abuse of children in the UK.

"It’s clear that a large volume of sexual assaults and rapes of children have involved the use of the internet – for example by grooming victims before abusing them offline, or live-streaming the abuse.

“We know grooming is on the rise because children are increasingly telling our ChildLine service how they are being targeted online. Predatory adults posing as children try to meet them or blackmail them into meeting up or performing sexual acts on webcams, which obviously terrifies them and can leave some feeling suicidal.

“By revealing this first year of data we hope to highlight how police are under increasing pressure to cope with online offences so we have to ensure they have the resources and training to make them fit for tackling crime in the 21st century.

"And government must make mental health support available to every child who has endured abuse - as we are calling for through our It’s Time campaign."

There was wide variation across the country in the numbers of offences that were cyber-flagged with some forces recording hundreds of crimes while others had fewer than ten.

A small number of forces said they were not using, or did not know about, the cyber-flag requirement, which was introduced by the Home Office at the beginning of April 2015 to get a better understanding of the extent of online offences.

Detective Superintendent for Protecting Vulnerable People Jason Wells said: "As everyone is aware, we live in an ever more digitised world and the internet is an ever present feature in most people's lives. Sadly, this also means that those who want to exploit and abuse children have another way to contact potential victims.

"As part of our commitment to make children in Warwickshire and West Mercia policing areas safer, we’re developing how we target people who sexually exploit children online.

"We are involved in Operation Safenet, a partnership of four police forces in the West Midlands targeting suspected paedophiles operating online.

"Often victims are not aware they are being exploited and might not report it for a variety of reasons, for example embarrassment, or they may feel, albeit wrongly, that in some way that they are to blame.

"Resources have been invested in training police officers to help them to spot the early warning signs and, along with our partner agencies, we remain committed to tackling child sexual exploitation with a consistently strong approach in order to protect vulnerable young people.

"Online groomers are devious and deceptive and our advice is not to add people to your social media accounts that you don’t know in real life." 

If a person is asking you to do something you feel uncomfortable about then you should tell someone, call police on 101 or visit ceop.police.uk/safety-centre."