One in five UK schoolchildren watch internet porn frequently and some are addicted, a major new study shows.

Charity Dignify spoke to 4,000 children aged between 14 and 18 in Hertfordshire, and found that 22% watch porn regularly.

Data shows that one in five participants in the study said they had a porn habit and one in ten said they felt addicted to sexually explicit content.

Non-consensual sharing of images was also identified as a problem. One in three young people had received nude images.

Alarmingly, more than half of young people who had received images of this kind said they had received it from a stranger.

Teaching unions have warned that schools are unprepared for issues arising from underage access to explicit content.

One head teacher told The Guardian that: “Schools are picking up the pieces of the harm done by the porn industry".

“We saw the number of students reporting sexual assault start to increase seven to eight years ago and at first we didn’t know why".

"I began to learn about the impact porn was having on our students. The correlation between sexual abuse and watching porn is very high.

CARE has spearheaded the campaign to protect children from porn, and is urging Ministers to act via the Online Safety Bill.

The bill, currently being considered in parliament, is set to introduce age checks on porn sites but CARE wants wider action.

In February, a spokeswoman for CARE said:

“When it comes to pornographic content, what is illegal offline should be illegal online. Extreme porn and prohibited pornographic material that cannot be sold in shops should not be available to watch online. Upwards of 65% of pornography available on mainstream websites would not be allowed to be sold in shops. This legal loophole must be closed.

“To be truly fit for purpose, the Online Safety Bill needs several additional measures. It needs: a definition of pornography as harmful content; robust age verification measures; age checks on porn sites within 6 months of a new law; measures verifying the consent and age of people in porn videos; and measures to ensure violent porn that’s illegal offline is also illegal online.

CARE also points to a growing body of evidence linking extreme sexual content and sexual violence. The spokeswoman added:

“Experts are alarmed at the availability of abusive, degrading internet pornography, and even warn that it is inspiring sexual violence offline. In the recent case of David Carrick, involving grotesque sexual violence, his attraction to violent pornography was noted. This was also true of Sarah Everard’s killer Wayne Couzens, and many other men jailed for sexual crime.

“Schools’ regulator Ofsted has reported growing levels of sexual harassment among school-aged children, with porn also being cited by girls who are the victims of attacks. The idea that our society is not being negatively affected by open-ended access to pornography is absurd. The government needs to address this situation through its online safety regime."

"The UK Government had the chance to introduce age verification measures in 2017 but failed to do so. Children can't afford more inaction. We call on Ministers to engage with CARE and other child safety campaigners who wish to see specific additions to the Online Safety Bill. Let’s make this legislation a success.”