DOZENS of people from Somerset are seeking help in a bid to stop looking at child sex abuse images online.

And across the South West, more than 1,000 people have visited anonymous self-help pages on the internet looking for advice.

The figures come from the ‘Stop it Now!’ helpline, run by the child protection campaign the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, and reveal some worrying trends.

Between November 15, 2015, and November 15 this year, 64 people from Taunton visited the charity’s website which offers advice and guidance to stop viewing the obscene images.

The charity also runs an anonymous phone helpline and from Somerset, between 28 November 2014 and 17 November 2016, 43 adult callers phoned seeking help, with another 28 people calling because they were concerned about someone else’s online behaviour.

Donald Findlater, child sexual abuse prevention expert and founder of Stop it Now!, said: “Over the past 14 years Stop it Now! has worked with thousands of sex offenders, including many men who had been arrested for viewing sexual images of under 18s online.

“We help them change their behaviour and get their lives back on a decent track. Most had not thought that others would ever find out - seeing their online lives as somehow separate from the real world.

“Few had considered the consequences of getting caught. Following arrest, their lives are often in turmoil.

“Imagine what it is like for a husband and father to have to tell his wife and children that he has been arrested for viewing sexual images of children online. To have to tell his Mum and Dad. Then having to tell his boss. And then his friends.

“Most have bitter regrets about the harm they have done to their families, to the victims in the images they viewed, and to themselves. But they also tell us they might never have stopped their illegal online behaviour if they’d not been caught.

“We need the tens of thousands of men still viewing these images today to realise that what they are doing is illegal and harmful and to make sure they stop. Here at Stop it Now! we give them all the help we can – by phone and online. And it is confidential. If this is you, please make that call.

“But we also want to hear from wives, partners, parents who are worried about a loved one’s sexual behaviour online.

“We must not turn a blind eye to this behaviour.”

Across the South West, which includes Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall, 1,272 people viewed the charity’s website last year, with a total of 90 men calling the confidential helpline.

Bristol had the highest number of residents visiting the pages, with 597 people, which was followed by Bournemouth, which had 186 people visiting the site.

Overall, there has been an eight per cent increase in people going to ‘Stop it Now’ compared to 2015.

David Lewis, Assistant Chief Constable for the South West Region, said: “The Lucy Faithfull Foundation’s work in providing men with help to stop viewing online sexual images of children is invaluable.

"Stop it Now! is a really important resource which has already provided hundreds of men across the South West and the rest of the nation with an alternative to viewing harmful images.

"This is a vital step in reducing the number of children who become victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.”

An NSPCC spokesman said: “Based on the latest research, around half a million men in the UK today may have viewed these appalling images - far larger than previous estimates – but no one knows how many child sexual abuse images are actually in circulation.

“What we do know is there needs to be greater collaboration by all stakeholders in the online world so we can better understand this problem, and do more quickly.

“The ‘Stop it Now’ website is a welcome method of preventing this type of offending behaviour, but it must be part of a larger approach also aimed at deterring, identifying and treating potential offenders and those already viewing these images.”

Our free helpline provides adults with a place they can get advice and support, share their concerns about a child or get general information about child protection. Adults can contact the helpline 24 hours a day, 365 days a year on 0808 800 5000, by texting 88858 or visiting www.nspcc.org.uk.