The charity is working with Greater Manchester Police on the E-spyproject which will also track down paedophiles who are swapping indecentpictures of children.
The project has seen two NSPCC social workers given full-time positionsin the police's abusive images' unit where they will work with adetective inspector, a sergeant, three constables and two investigativesupport officers.
It is estimated that thousands of children in the UK are being abusedthrough the internet - but the number of children who have been tracedby police is only in the hundreds.
Dave Whatton, assistant chief constable of Greater Manchester Police,was confident that the initiative would lead to many more children beingidentified. He said: "I am sure that project E-spy will prove extremelysuccessful and will help us find children who are abused and bring themthe help they need."
He added that paedophiles often masquerade as children in internet chatrooms in order to build up relationships with other children. But thenew project meant that "specially trained officers now police theinternet, as they would any other beat".
Wes Cuell, NSPCC director of services for children and young people'said: "We scan the images and through a range of clues we can manage tolocate the child. We often see pictures of the child at different agesso the suffering is ongoing. Hopefully, E-spy will be instrumental intracing more of these children and saving them from further abuse."
Joint work between the NSPCC and Greater Manchester Police has alreadyhelped to track down a number of internet paedophiles. But the newproject builds on previous collaborations between the two organisationsby integrating staff into one team for the first time.
- Separately, the NSPCC has welcomed a new initiative in Belgium underwhich every child aged from 12 to 15 is given an electronic identitycard which enables them to enter a protected chat room.
Cuell said he would like to see a similar scheme being adopted in theUK. "People from the industry have been talking about implementingsomething like this," he said.
