​Support site says it is successfully guiding people away from indecent images

Thousands of Scots have contacted a charity in a bid to stop them from viewing indecent images of children.

A total of 3,579 people from Scotland have contacted the website Stop It Now! Get Help for support.

They join more than 43,000 people across the UK who have contacted the site since 2015.

Run by the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, the resource offers anonymous support for perpetrators as well as for friends and family who are concerned about behaviour of others.

Last year around 640 people in Scotland were charged with viewing and downloading indecent images of children.

Stuart Allardyce, national manager at Stop it Now Scotland, said the site was supporting people to seek help.

“One of the things we do know is that the amount of images that are online and are being accessed by adults is increasing,” he said.

“That is partly because self-produced images by adolescents are sometimes being uploaded onto websites, but in the majority of cases those images are generally created in the context of a child being sexually exploited.

“There are real victims here. This is not a victimless crime.

“From several studies, we now know that the scale of the problem goes way beyond that – maybe as much as 10 times the size of that.

“We know that those who are charged by the police are just the tip of the iceberg and it is a problem that is way too big for the police.

"We need a range of responses to make sure the police can target their resources on the most dangerous individuals.”

Since October 2015, a total of 836 people from Glasgow have visited the website compared to Edinburgh’s 791 and Dundee’s 173 people.

Detective superintendent Elaine Galbraith, head of child protection at Police Scotland, said: “Sharing and viewing indecent images of children is child sexual abuse and a criminal offence.

"As such we utilise our specialist departments and officers across local policing to pursue such offending behaviour.”