Dutch police have received double the amount of reports about child pornography so far this year than they did in 2015 in its entirety, police said on Monday.

To date, police have had some 12,000 reports which are being investigated by 11 dedicated police teams. So far this year, 156 child victims have been identitied.

The total has been boosted by referrals from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the US, police say. Companies such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook are required by law to report cases of child pornography to the NCMEC.

In addition, children who fall prey to online abusers are getting younger, says Ben van Mierlo coordinator of the national child sex crime unit. Children are being given access to the internet at younger ages, Van Mierlo said.

Dangers

‘Parents often don’t realise that a tablet or a smartphone have a built in camera,’ he told broadcaster NOS.

Parents must begin teaching children about the dangers presented by the internet and online grooming at the age of seven and eight, Van Mierlo says. In addition, parents can tape off cameras to stop them being used.

‘Tell your child why your are doing this,’ he said. ‘Then they will learn that you can’t trust everyone on the internet.’