Alarming figures show that half of the 106,984 child abuse cases reported in England and Wales in 2022 involved a 10 to 17-year-old as the perpetrator.
Christian research and campaign group CARE are saying that access hardcore pornography is a major cause, with porn's power over the brain leading to children copying what they see online.
CARE's Head of Communications James Mildred told Premier that CARE' research revealed that children as young as five are stumbling across pornography online.
"You cannot escape the fact that what lies behind this really disturbing figure, we think, and others think it too, is the fact that the Internet continues to be like the Wild West, and 10 to 17 year olds find it all too easy to access, not just pornography, that would be bad enough, but hardcore pornography, the really extreme stuff."
And then what happens is people go out, and they copy what they've seen because it's normalised for them. They think that there's something just routine about this. And most of the offences committed by these 10-17 year olds, sadly, are against young girls, which is just doubly tragic.
The Online Safety Bill, which passed through both Houses of Parliament in September last year, will task broadcast regulator Ofcom with regulating social media sites and age restricting pornographic content. As Mildred told Premier however, it is unclear when the this will be put in motion.
"We are waiting for the necessary parts of that to be implemented. And our position has been for the last few months, saying to government 'Come on, we need to get on with this, it's time for Ofcom to really grasp this issue'.
"Let's get age checks in place as soon as possible."
When it comes to sex education in schools, CARE says they understand circumstances where Christian parents object to their children participating.
However, with porn so prevalent and influential in informing children's attitudes to sex and relationships, Mildred told Premier it has never been more important for parents to ensure that they are having the conversations.
"If they (children) are not getting good, high quality sex education at school, and if they're not getting conversations with parents who are trying to help them navigate these things, then their only source of understanding what sex looks like is from the internet.
"And then you add in the factor of peer pressure as well, when 10 year olds, 11 year olds, teenagers are talking to one another about their exploits and about what they've managed to do sexually. It creates this kind of mothball effect where the pressure rises."