An inspection by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) found the force did not always do enough to identify and apprehend the suspects of child abuse, or assess the risk they pose to other children vulnerable to CSE.
The report is the first in of a series into how police perform on child protection, and comes just days after police and children's services in Rotherham were heavily criticised for failing to properly tackle CSE in the Yorkshire town over many years.
It found that in two cases that were assessed, suspects of child abuse were not pursued because of "reluctance of the child to support a prosecution".
"This should not have prevented officers identifying the likely offender, obtaining intelligence and determining the risk they could pose to other children," the report states.
The report gives the example of a 13-year-old girl who had sent intimate images of herself to two men.
"Although safeguarding measures were put in place for the girl, officers did not make sufficiently thorough enquiries - for example through media analysis - to attempt to identify the men.
The report calls on Norfolk Constabulary to take "immediate action to improve the effectiveness of action plans for identifying, disrupting and prosecuting perpetrators involved in child sexual exploitation".
The report also highlighted concerns about "inconsistent" practice in relation to children involved in long-term and high-risk domestic abuse incidents, and that officers attending a domestic abuse incident did not always have access to information about the possible presence of registered sex offenders or ‘at risk' children.
But the force was praised for having a "strong commitment to child protection" and strong leadership on the issue.
The report also said there was much good practice and when a concern for a child or an incident was identified from the outset as a child protection matter, the police response was "invariably good".
"Efforts have been made to improve the ability of those police officers and staff most likely to have significant contact with children to recognise that children may be at risk," the report added.
HM Inspector of Constabulary Dru Sharpling said that, overall, Norfolk Constabulary is strongly committed to protecting children in the county from abuse and violence.
"This can be attributed to the strong leadership we found and the relationships the constabulary has with other agencies," she said.
"There are, however, some areas in which the constabulary could improve and we have made a series of recommendations.
"I am asking Norfolk Constabulary to update me on progress against those recommendations, and to provide an action plan, within six weeks."
Over the next two years, HMIC will assess how effectively each police force in England and Wales safeguards children and young people at risk.
A damning independent inquiry report published last week revealed systematic failings to address CSE in Rotherham, with an estimated 1,400 children falling victim to abusers between 1997 and 2013.
