POLICE recorded nearly two child abuse image offences each day in Sussex last year, data from the NSPCC shows.

The children’s charity has warned offenders are using social networks to target children for abuse online, grooming and manipulating them into sending naked images.

Sussex Police recorded 667 offences of viewing child abuse images between April 2017 and March this year. This was up from 645 over the previous 12 months.

A single offence recorded by police can involve hundreds of indecent images of children.

Across the UK’s police forces, nearly 23,000 offences were recorded in 2017-18, 25 per cent more than in 2016-17.

The figures come after the Home Secretary Sajid Javid warned internet giants, including Google and Facebook, they could be subject to new laws unless they increase their efforts to tackle online child abuse content.

Tony Stower, NSPCC’s head of child safety online, said: “Every one of these images represents a real child who has been groomed and abused to supply the demand of this appalling trade. The lack of adequate protections on social networks has given offenders all too easy access to children to target and abuse.

“This is the last chance saloon for social networks on whose platforms this abuse is often taking place.”

An NSPCC survey of 40,000 youngsters revealed an average of one in 50 schoolchildren had sent a nude or semi-nude image to an adult.