"This is the first generation ever where we've given our children access to anything. But more importantly, perhaps, we've given anything access to our children.”

The words of Michael Conroy- founder of the “Men at Work Foundation” which trains professionals working with boys and young men to have safer conversations among their peers. He continues:

"In the past 12 months, I've worked with about 1,000 teachers, social workers and youth workers. In each of the training sessions I asked the question, 'Are the young people you work with impacted by porn?' The majority say, 'Yes, very clearly, definitely.' "So there is an awareness of the issue – but perhaps not of the depth and scale of it.”

The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel De Souza has recently published a report containing evidence that the average age that young people first encounter pornography is 13 and that as many as 10% have seen hardcore pornography before they turn 9. Testimony in the report referenced the “unbearable pressure children bring to bear on each other to watch material that contains degrading and often violent behaviour towards women.

The Online Safety Bill is currently making its way through Parliament. Under the terms of the bill, Platforms will need to remove all illegal content, remove content that is banned by their own terms and conditions, and empower adult internet users with tools so that they can tailor the type of content they see and can avoid potentially harmful content if they do not want to see it on their feeds.

Dame Rachel makes the case that social media platforms could be doing more now in advance of the bill becoming law to enforce their own codes of practice.

"If you've got a social-media site that allows 13 pluses on, then they should not be able to see pornography on it.”

While we wait for the Bill to become law and to be enforced- here are some top tips for parents and for teachers working with or advising families:

• Bookmark the NSPCC online safety page and familiarise yourself with the guidance there;

• Access the policies your school adheres to and find out about their programme of online education;

• Talk to your children and establish clear boundaries on internet access;

• Enable and manage safety settings on your home network;

• Try to keep internet usage within family spaces rather than bedrooms

• Keep yourself informed about the latest games and apps that your children want to access;

• If they go on play dates, bear in mind that the host family may not have the same rules that you set.