A British group fighting pornography has released a report showing a surprising rise in child pornography being produced by youths.

The Internet Watch Foundation called it a “disturbing trend” of “younger children…producing sexually explicit content which is being distributed online.”

In their report analyzing over 3,800 images and videos from September through November 2014.  The report shows that 17.5% of the captured content contains children who are 15 years old or younger.

“Of particular concern is that the young people depicted took no steps to conceal their identity or location, even in many cases using their real names,” concluded the researchers.

“In some instances, it is apparent that this content is being knowingly created to appear on public websites, however, as 100 percent of the content depicting children aged 15 years or younger had been harvested from its original upload location and further distributed via third party websites, control over its removal or onward distribution has been lost.”

Dawn Hawkins of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation told the Christian Post that major consequences are awaiting the children engaging in this behavior.  She says that the world’s highly sexualized society drives the problem.

“Largely, it is because highly sexual media is everywhere you look and is often portrayed as a way to be popular, cool, grownup and successful with no negative consequences. Kids are simply copying what they see adults do,” said Hawkins.

“Parents must recognize that even their most successful, well-behaved children are at risk. Talk to your kids about these realities — tell them about the science; tell them about the lasting consequences.”