WORRIED people from Worcestershire have sought a charity's help to tackle their addiction to child porn.

Figures show 171 people from Worcestershire sought a charity’s help to stop online viewing of indecent images of children last year.

The majority of these people (89) were from Worcester, 25 were from Redditch and 57 from other parts of the county.

The figures cover the period from January 1 to December 31 last year.

They visited the 'Stop it Now! Get Help' website, run by charity the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, in the last 12 months to access help to stop either their own viewing of online sexual images of children, or that of a loved one.

The figures also reveal that 16 men from Worcestershire called the confidential Stop it Now! helpline over the same period to get help – with nine of those calls from people concerned about someone else's online behaviour.

Chris Singer, assistant chief constable protective services for West Mercia and Warwickshire Police, said: “Changing offending behaviour is a critical part of efforts to reduce the sexual exploitation of children, and Stop It Now has proved to be a very effective tool to help offenders and potential offenders step away from the path they are on, and gain access to the help that they need to address their behaviours.

"The fact that other people can also use the service where they have concerns is also critically important, helping to create an environment where the safety of children is the primary concern, and where those who are having inappropriate thoughts about sexual behaviour with children can be afforded the opportunity to change.

"We welcome this work, which can help to change lives for the better and crucially, keep children safe.”

The 16 calls to the Stop it Now! Helpline from Worcestershire in 2016 make up one per cent of the 1,504 calls received from across the UK in the period.

Across the West Midlands, 115 calls were made to the helpline during 2016 – an increase of 35 per cent over the 85 calls made the previous year.

A further 62 adults from the West Midlands rang over the same period to express their concerns about the online behaviour of another adult. These calls are typically from wives or parents.

Police say online viewing and sharing of indecent images of children is on the rise in the UK.

In 2013 the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) estimated that as many as 50,000 individuals in the UK were involved in downloading or sharing sexual images of children.

But in a BBC TV interview in October 2016, National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) lead for child protection, Chief Constable Simon Bailey, said that at least 100,000 people in the UK were now regularly viewing online sexual images of children.

The Stop it Now! website can be accessed at get-help.stopitnow.org.uk. It offers self-help tools and resources to help users address their behaviour, as well as information and support to partners and friends of people arrested for, or suspected of, accessing online child abuse images.