Police forces are turning to specialist charities and partner agencies to cope with the growing number of teenagers caught up in online child abuse.

As new pornography laws come into force, frontline officers warn that young people are going down a pathway through extreme content that could lead to real-life abusive images of children.

From Friday, it will be illegal to publish or possess pornography showing strangulation, incest – including some step-relations – or adults acting out fantasies of sex with under-16s. The ban is built on years of campaigning that links pornography to real-life harm.

“This will be difficult to police,” said DC Sarah Turner, part of a team of specialist officers investigating child abuse in West Mercia.…