An NSPCC investigation has revealed a sharp rise in online child abuse image offences across the South West.
Freedom of Information data obtained from 42 UK police forces shows more than 36,800 offences of indecent and prohibited images of children were recorded between April 2024 and March 2025, a nine per cent increase on the previous year.
Across Avon and Somerset, Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, and Wiltshire police areas, 3,481 offences were recorded - a 37 per cent rise from 2,542 the year before.
The NSPCC is calling for tougher action from technology companies, as well as the government, to protect children from growing online abuse.
Chris Sherwood, chief executive of the NSPCC, said: "It is utterly indefensible that we are still seeing around 100 child sexual abuse image offences recorded every single day.
"Children across the UK are being completely failed by tech companies that should be protecting them online.
"We cannot keep letting them off the hook when they can do more to prevent this from happening."
The charity is urging tech firms to deploy existing technology that would block the creation, sharing, or viewing of nude images on children’s devices in real time.
The NSPCC argues this would help prevent grooming, extortion, and abuse by stopping these images from ever being created or distributed.
Of the 10,811 offences where police recorded the platform used, 43 per cent took place on Snapchat, totalling 4,615 cases.
Meta’s platforms accounted for nearly a quarter of all offences.
This included eight per cent on Instagram, seven per cent on WhatsApp, five per cent on Facebook, and four per cent on Messenger.
However, the NSPCC warns that end-to-end encryption likely means these figures underrepresent the true scale of abuse on these platforms.
In one case highlighted by Childline, a 17-year-old boy said: "I shared a nude online and it was leaked, so everyone at school saw it."
"I was in a really bad way, so I moved schools.
"The nude pictures still come up as random people message me and blackmail me with them.
"I'm worried about my new friends seeing them and how the leaked nudes will impact my career in the future."
The government previously committed, in its violence against women and girls strategy, to working with tech companies to stop children from taking or sharing nude images.
The NSPCC says it is clear tech firms are not doing enough.
Mr Sherwood said: "Behind every one of these offences is a child who has been groomed, abused and manipulated.
"They are left to carry the trauma, whilst tech companies continue to profit handsomely.
"Technology already exists that could be deployed today to stop children from taking, sharing or receiving nude images.
"So, the real question is: what’s stopping them?
The NSPCC insists that if tech companies do not act voluntarily, the UK Government must make these protections mandatory to keep children safe.
The charity has issued three key recommendations to the government, urging them to go beyond a simple social media ban in their efforts to protect young people online.
