In 1990, there were only 7,000 hard copy images of child porn in the United Kingdom, according to non-profit group NSPCC.
Today there are hundreds of millions of digital images of child porn on the Internet accessible to people around the world.
This radical development means that more children are being abused than ever, with a growing number from the third world and a growing number who are misled into filming themselves with webcams.
Even more shocking is what this implies about the number of people who look at child porn.
NSPCC head Jon Brown tells the BBC:
"The inhibitions are too few, especially if men are in a room by themselves - it's too easy," he said.
"We need to be asking what is the male psychology that makes them view this imagery? It's not just a few sick men, it's a much larger number.
"As a society we haven't got our heads around that, we need to recognise this and have a rational and sensible conversation rather than see them as monsters or beasts."
Experts say the 1,362 child porn arrests in the U.K. and Wales in 2011 vastly understate the size of the market. The same could be said about the U.S., where most child porn arrests involve people who have physically abused children as well as looked at child pornography.
That's why some people are looking for new approaches to the problem, such as warnings on the Internet to discourage people who search for child porn and counseling to stop repeat offenders.
"We have to recognise the limited potential of law enforcement to fully deal with this problem," Donald Findlater from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a child protection charity, tells the BBC.
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