THE understanding most people have of online sexual abuse of children is like the activity itself - distant, intangible, even other worldly.

Hearing from a father who discovered his 13-year-old son had been groomed online and sexually assaulted by the perpetrators brought it dramatically into the present.

Speaking at the launch of a pilot project aimed at improving support for children who have suffered sexual abuse online and their families, the father revealed how he and his wife had noticed a change in their son's behaviour.

But it was only after his lengthy use of a laptop upstairs one evening, followed by his mother overhearing a telephone conversation in which he was arranging to meet someone, that the truth emerged.

The father said: "There were a number of perpetrators, but we didn't find out about them all at once - it was an unfolding nightmare.

"The majority of those people abused our boy over a period of six months."

From the point of discovery, what followed only exacerbated their horror.

He said a social worker treated the boy as a naughty child, while police referred to him as the instigator.

The family was supported by the boy's school and charities, including the Marie Collins Foundation (MCF), the UK's only organisation dedicated to helping children and their families following online sexual abuse.

Operating from its base in North Yorkshire for the past three years, the charity has teamed up with BT to pilot a groundbreaking initiative to train thousands of people who work to protect and support child online abuse victims to understand their role and those of colleagues in other organisations

The CLICK: Path to Protection project aims to enable professionals to plan approaches to each case, from discovery to recovery.

Tink Palmer, MCF chief executive, said children never revealed what happened to them, and parents are left in complete shock when abuse is discovered and rarely know where to turn for help.

"We want every frontline worker to be empowered to intervene in a way that they have never been able to before," she said.

Best practice training resources are being developed by experts including Ms Palmer, representatives from education and children’s services, the College of Policing and the Association of Chief Police Officers.

It will be tested in pilot projects, before being refined and implemented nationally.

Independent research commissioned by MCF found more than 95 per cent of frontline professionals in education, health and children's services said they needed training to help children and their families with recovery from online abuse.

It is protection from which Marie Collins, the survivor after whom the Foundation is named, never benefited when she was abused and photographed at the age of 13.

She endured 30 years of depression, anxiety, panic attacks and numerous admissions to hospital before she found the right help to recover.

Speaking at the launch of CLICK: Path to Protection, she said: "The photography had a much greater impact in terms of damage to me psychologically than the physical abuse.

"I can only imagine how much worse it is for young people who are groomed into providing photographs online.

"There must be a coordinated response and cohesive treatment that forms a shell of support and protection around the victim and their family, because if the family don't understand what's going on they can't help the child."

For details, visit mariecollinsfoundation.org.uk