Referrals of children for inappropriate sexual behaviour have “sky-rocketed” in recent years, a leading child welfare expert has warned. Kieran McGrath was speaking ahead of the publication of his book on the issue, Understanding and Managing Sexualised Behaviour in Children and Adolescents.

Mr McGrath warned that smartphones in particular “can be used to ensnare children in behaviours that can damage them for the rest of their lives”. He said that young males especially were being exposed to widespread pornography that bore no resemblance to the straightforwardly sexual pornography of the past. It consisted now of extreme, explicit, violent and degrading material which was “damaging the developing brains of young males in a way that causes them to be more narcissistic and uncaring of others”.