UK charity the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) reported that three out of four children in the United Kingdom have seen disturbing images on the Web, BBC News reported Monday. The NSPCC urged computer manufacturers and retailers to include security measures that would prevent the phenomenon and said that social networks and video hosting sites like YouTube should get rid of “offensive” content as soon as possible.

“Children are just a few clicks away from innocently stumbling across upsetting or even dangerous pictures and films such as adult sex scenes, violent dog fights, people self-harming and children being assaulted,” Zoe Hilton, the charity's policy adviser, told the BBC.

Visitors to the NSPCC's children-oriented site There4me.com were polled, and the organisation concluded that it was “alarmed” by how easy it was to stumble on “potentially disturbing content” online, with 377 of 497 users voting that they might have been agitated by images they saw on the Internet, according to BBC News.

Hilton mentioned that computers should be pre-equipped with “high-security parental controls” if they are to be used by children, pointing out that manufacturers and retailers leave the task of looking for and installing child-protection software up to the parents.