Paedophilia is a treatable illness The police are struggling to get on top of this problem. Peter Davies, who leads the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP), has said that only one in 15 of those caught viewing child pornography is arrested. And they are only the offenders who come to the police's attention. There is another approach - albeit controversial. It is too easy to see paedophiles as caricatures of evil, devoid of emotions and reason, but that view helps no one. In fact, the majority of those who find themselves attracted to children are tormented by their predilection. According to the WHO's International Classification of Diseases, paedophilia is a mental illness, yet there is scant investment in resources to help treat paedophiles. The only way most paedophiles access help is after they have committed a crime. I want to see help offered to these people before they seek out child pornography - or, even worse, act out their sick fantasies. Those who recognise they have paedophile tendencies are more likely to come forward if they know they will be offered treatment, rather than be treated as criminals before they've committed a crime. I know of only one place in Britain where people can get treatment for paedophilia on the NHS. It's the Portman Clinic in north London, a highly specialist forensic psychiatry clinic. In the charitable sector, there's the Lucy Faithful Foundation, which offers online self-help tools, as well a confidential helpline. It is telling that the foundation receives funding from the Ministry of Justice, rather than the Department of Health. Yet if we view this as a medical condition that needs our understanding and, yes, compassion, then encouraging sufferers to come forward and be treated means we will also be helping their potential victims. Why aren't we investing in treatment as well as trying to clean up the internet? Then, the police would be better able to focus on the perpetrators of abuse who so often evade detection.