AN agency to stop child prostitution in a North-East town has been launched after research has shown the problem is widespread.

Experts from Barnardo's have revealed that at least 19 children and young people in Stockton are known to be used as prostitutes.

However, they believe the true figure to be higher and have identified 123 young people as being "at very high risk".

That means those children and young people may have already been sexually abused, are dependant on drugs or have friends and relatives who are already involved in prostitution.

Some of the 123, including 41 boys, are known to be linked to adults believed to be involved in the sex trade.

The new Barnardo's-led agency will be called Against Child Exploitation (Ace) and has secured £143,000 to operate over the next three years.

The Lottery provided £123,000 and the rest has come from Barnardo's.

Ace will be an offshoot of an existing Barnardo's agency called Sexual Exploitation of Children on the Streets (Secos), which is based in Middlesbrough.

A third Barnardo's child protection agency will be launched in Newcastle towards the end of the year.

The new agency was launched at The Arc theatre, Stockton, yesterday and a conference was held which was attended by council care workers, police and charity workers.

A research document into the scale of the problem in the borough of Stockton has been published by Barnardo's.

It showed that a total of 224 children, in ages ranging from eight to 18, are either at high or very high risk.

The experts could only be sure that 19 young people were involved in prostitution.

However, accommodation groups indicated that 45 under-age females are involved and other indicators show that figure could be even higher.

Other research showed that the number of boys involved may be far higher than was previously thought and half the "at risk" children are boys.

Wendy Shepherd, manager of Secos, said the problem was no worse in Teesside than in other major towns and cities across the UK.

She said: "This happens everywhere but we must do everything we can to prevent this problem from escalating. People might say 'there are not that many,' but one is too many.