HUNDREDS of people living in North Yorkshire have either sought help to stop viewing sexual images of children online or tried to get support for a loved one.
The Stop it Now! Get Help website was visited four hundred and ninety three times from computers in North Yorkshire, including 131 visits in York.
The Get Help website - www.get-help.stopitnow.org.uk - is operated by Stop it Now!, a sexual abuse prevention campaign run by child protection charity, the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
It offers self-help tools and resources to help people address their behaviour.
A total of 2,226 people visited the site from Yorkshire in 2016/17, an increase of 76 per cent compared to the 1,268 people who visited last year.
This comes at a time when police across the UK are reporting a rise in the number of people viewing or sharing abusive images online.
In October 2016 the National Police Chiefs Council said that at least 100,000 people in the UK were accessing images.
Tom Squire, clinical manager at child protection charity, The Lucy Faithfull Foundation, said: “If you are struggling with your online behaviour, or if you know someone who is, please take that all important first step and get in touch.”
Anyone who needs help can also phone the charity’s confidential helpline on 0808 1000 900.
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