MORE than 50 people in the West Mercia policing area have been arrested in the past year for possessing, downloading or distributing indecent images of children, new figures have revealed.
The NSPCC says more and more explicit pictures are being taken and is demanding action from the Government and the internet industry to curb the problem.
The child protection charity sent freedom of information requests to police forces all over the country and found that more than 2,300 arrests were made between April 2011 and March 2012.
Five of the 37 forces did not respond or were unable to supply information.
The NSPCC also asked forces to reveal how many child abuse images were now being seized.
In 1990, just 7,000 child abuse pictures were in circulation, according to the Home Office.
Child safety experts believe the number now in circulation could be as high as 300 million.
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