A woman who left the porn industry has called for explicit content to be banned on social media platform Twitter because children are being exposed to it.

Lisa Ann has urged tech tycoon Elon Musk, who recently acquired the platform in a multi-billion dollar deal, to root out x-rated pictures and videos as a matter of priority.

At present, the platform has no official rules against sexually explicit content and also allows children to create an account from the age of just thirteen.

Investigations have found children younger than 13 are also able to create a Twitter account and access disturbing material as no proof of age is required to join the platform.

Facebook has stricter rules against explicit content, including pornographic content, and will remove content in breach of its standards if it is flagged by users.

Ms Ann told The Sun that Twitter is the "largest distributor of illegal content to minors", given it has "no age gate. She suggested the age be raised and ID be required.

In the UK, children can access mainstream pornography sites with ease, due to a lack of controls. CARE is campaigning for a robust system of age verification, requiring sites to verify the age of users.

The government has committed to age verification under its Online Safety Bill. However, the precise details of this are still to be set out by Ministers.

CARE will be agitating for the strongest possible controls on sites, and stiff penalties for sites that fail to protect children.