The charity urged tech companies to accept the new legislation, rather than fight it, in an effort to protect children online. It added that 73 per cent of crimes were linked to Snapchat or Meta, and one in four online grooming crimes in the last five years were against primary school children.

The much-delayed Online Safety Bill has been presented by the government as a ground-breaking law that will target online racism, sexual abuse, bullying, fraud and other harmful material often found on the internet.

In its original form, the bill gave regulators wide-ranging powers to sanction digital and social media companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok. However, it has been significantly watered down in revisions over the past year.

MPs and Lords are expected to make the final decisions on the implementation of the Bill next month.

The NSPCC sent Freedom of Information requests and asked for data on all recorded offences of sexual communication...