Paedophiles are blackmailing British children into performing sex acts online, threatening them to send their obscene images to their family and friends.
Investigators from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) centre said children as young as eight have been targeted into performing sex acts.
CEOP added that children are being driven to self-harm and commit suicide by constant abuses by paedophiles, Sky News reports.
The organization added that in the past two years, 424 children worldwide have been blackmailed in this way, of whom 184 were from the UK.
It added that internationally, seven victims committed suicide and another seven seriously self-harmed, of whom six were from the UK.
Paedophiles create fake online profiles and pose as children, even geographically researching the areas where they wish to target victims.
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They then persuade them to share their sexual images or perform sex acts on camera, the report said.
They then threaten to share the pictures or footage with the victim's family or friends, and force them to perform more extreme sex acts on camera, and even harm themselves, it added.