Girls aged 12 to 15 are the most likely to be targeted according to the figures, which have led to a call from the NSPCC for action from government and social media companies.
In April 2017, the new offence of sexual communication with a child came into force. Previously, police could not intervene until a groomer met a young victim in person.
Some of the cases recorded since April 2017 involve children as young as seven, but most are of secondary school age.
The NSPCC wants social media to make better use of the algorithms that are used for online advertising to help flag potential offenders. For example, as well as identifying hate speech or extremism, algorithms could be used to spot someone following young people with no mutual friends or someone getting lots of rejected friend requests from children.
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