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Chief Constable Simon Bailey of the National Police Chief's Council said police forces "cannot cope" with the "huge" rise in reports. He says an increase in reporting sexual abuse - including historical cases - has lead to the policing system reaching "saturation point."
Officers should focus on the most dangerous offenders who could directly offend against children, he says, while lower level offending should be dealt with through counselling and rehabilitation.
Due to stigma, it is difficult to know how many pedophiles there are in Britain. The National Crime Agency in 2015, however, estimated up to 750,000 men are interested in having sex with children. That implies that as many as one in every 35 adult males is on the pedophile spectrum.
A National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) study in late 2016 suggested the number of individuals looking at child porn could exceed half a million. Bailey told the BBC about 400 people were arrested by police every month for looking at indecent images.
Comment: The numbers are staggering and a definite sign of the times. Some RT readers expressed outrage and feared that it would normalize pedophilia and push towards a lack of punishment overall. If lawmakers were serious about tackling the problem maybe they could target the institutions they are surrounded by, and then the porn industry for committing the sexual abuse and providing material that can be exposed to adults and children of any age. From the website Your brain On Porn: