CHILDREN as young as seven have video chatted online with someone they’ve never met in person.

A survey of 3,310 children from the South West found that a quarter had livestreamed online and 13 per cent of children between seven and 16 had video chatted with someone they had never met in person.

The charity has called for greater regulation of social networks as part of its Wild West Web campaign and launched a petition.

One girl, aged 10-11, said: “My friend was doing a live stream and an adult man was asking for her to video request him, so she did and he showed his private parts.”

A girl aged 11-12 said: “On Omegle this man was pulling, touching, and showing his privates.”

The charity believes that livestreaming is rising at a higher rate than Government estimates and is working to reduce online grooming that can take place on social networks.

Peter Wanless, NSPCC chief executive, said: “The popularity of livestreaming has led to a dangerous cocktail of risks for children. Its immediacy means children are being pressured into going along with situations that make them feel uncomfortable. The lure of a big audience, or thinking that they are chatting to someone they can trust, piles on that pressure. What’s really disturbing is that groomers can then screenshot or record livestreamed abuse, and use it to blackmail the child or share it with others."

“We urge the public to sign our petition calling on Government to introduce tough regulation of social networks to make sure measures are in place to protect children from abuse over livestreaming and video chat.”

Molly, whose real name has been changed was targeted when she was 15 by a family friend who used Facebook and texts to send her sexual messages.

It was not against the law when she was targeted, but following an NSPCC Flaw In the Law campaign, in 2017 it became illegal for an adult to send a sexual text to a child.

Molly was living in Wiltshire when the family friend, 35, added her on Facebook.

She said: “At first the conversation was very general, and he’d ask how I was and how my family was. Then one day he messaged me saying that I looked really pretty at the youth group the night before.

"His messages started to get more sexual too and he would tell me he was talking to me from his bed. One morning he told me that he was masturbating while thinking about me. I deleted the messages as I felt disgusted.

“The police told me it was a good thing that I hadn’t got in his car when he was pestering me to as I could have been kidnapped and sexually abused. I escaped that but other young people might not be so lucky.”