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Pointing to the way the Internet facilitates the exchange of illicit pictures and provides new ways for paedophiles to reach children, the charity also warns that organised crime has become involved in the production and sale of such pornography.

For the latest figures available, it seems that 549 offenders were charged over child pornography in 2001 compared with 35 in 1988 (which is when the current legal framework over child porn was setup). This is a jump of 1,500 per cent and represents an annual rate

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of increase of 33 per cent. In total, 3,022 people have been cautioned or charged over child porn offences since 1988.

The figures for more recent years are expected to continue to rise. The well-publicised Operation Ore, for example, started in 2002 and has lead to 2,300 arrests. However, these have not yet been fed through to official figures.

In his executive Summary John Carr, an Internet Consultant at the NCH, calls on the IT industry to find new technology-based solutions to assist the police in dealing with new types of Internet-based abuse. In particular, he is concerned about the possible future role of mobile camera phones.

'With the advent of GPRS and 3G mobile phone networks, the Internet is about to go mobile on a large scale, supported by new, sophisticated telephone handsets,' he writes. 'Almost all of the issues of child safety on the Internet that exist today become much more complex when the Internet goes on the street.'

You can find a summary of the report in PDF on the NCH website.