Police officers will trawl online chatrooms posing as children to entrap paedophiles as part of a new agency launched yesterday to tackle child abuse over the Internet.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre – which will work in partnership with the recently-set up Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) – will operate 24 hours a day.

The new unit, staffed by specialist police officers, computer experts and child welfare officials, will also create fake Web sites that will pretend to offer child porn to entice paedophiles into giving up credit card details.

“We have to realise that the online and offline worlds are connected and face up to the fact that today’s children are sophisticated users of mobile phones and the Internet. Protecting them in this environment needs a new kind of response,” said a Home Office spokesman.

Although police have previously posed as minors as part of sting operations, the new unit will be the first of its kind to be permanently staffed.