DOZENS of men have called a helpline set up to help them stop looking at sexual images of children online, it has emerged.

Nearly 80 men living in Scotland called contacted counsellors working for the phone line, run by the child protection charity the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, looking for help breaking their child pornography addiction.

The helpline offers anonymous support for those worried about either their own online sexual behaviour or someone else's, and has been backed by Police Scotland.

A website set up by the charity was also accessed more than 1,500 times in 2016 by people in Scotland looking for more information.

Both the website and the phone line are part of the foundation's Stop it Now! Get Help campaign, which is aimed at preventing the abuse of children.

The website offers self-help tools and resources to help users address their behaviour and also provides information and support to partners and friends of people arrested for, or suspected of, accessing online child abuse images.

John Hawkins, Assistant Chief Constable for Scotland, said: “Police Scotland is determined to work with our statutory partners, with support services and importantly with our communities to do all we can to eliminate child sexual abuse.

"Changing offender behaviour is a vitally important element of this work. 'Stop it Now' provides abusers and potential abusers troubled by their sexual thoughts regarding children access to support.

"In turn this can help them to manage their thoughts and behaviour. Vitally, the service also provides other adults with advice and support when they have concerns about the online behaviour of others.

"I would encourage anyone who has sexual thoughts regarding children to contact 'Stop it Now' – child sexual abuse is preventable.”

In total, 78 calls were made from Scotland to the Stop it Now! office in Edinburgh, 5 per cent of the 1,504 calls received from across the UK last year.

A further 28 Scots rang over the same period to talk about their concerns about the online behaviour of another adult. These calls were said to come from wives or parents.

Police have become concerned about an escalation in online viewing and sharing of child abuse images in the UK, with an estimated 100,000 people involved in downloading or sharing sexual images of children in 2016, double the number four years ago.

A spokesman for the NSPCC Scotland said: “Research indicates that up to half a million men in the UK may have viewed child abuse images, which shows this is a serious problem we must urgently address.

“Prevention of child abuse is of the utmost importance. The Lucy Faithfull Foundation provides essential interventions with offenders and potential offenders to seek to change their behaviours.

“The NSPCC welcomes further focus on this aspect of prevention although it is just one of many avenues we must pursue to protect children.

Stuart Allardyce, Director of Stop it Now! Scotland, said that the charity had worked with hundreds of men arrested for viewing sexual images of children.

He said: "For many, being arrested was a real wake-up call. Many knew what they were doing was wrong, but struggled to change their behaviour on their own. That’s where our work comes in.

"We make sure these men understand the harm they have caused the children in these images, and also the serious consequences for them and their families if they don’t get to grips with their online behaviour. Once they understand this, they become far less likely to reoffend."

He added: "But there are thousands of men out there viewing sexual images of under-18s. We need to get to them too, to help them understand what they are doing is illegal and incredibly harmful to the children and young people in the images – and to get them to stop."