Last year she used the evidence of rising online abuse to support the NCA’s case for an extra £2.7 billion to fight serious and organised crime, including a more than doubling in the agency’s budget to £650 million.

NPCC lead for child protection Chief Constable Simon Bailey said: “It is sickening to think that some criminals are looking to exploit the coronavirus crisis to cause harm online.

'Despite the issues that the pandemic will cause for law enforcement, child protection is still a priority and we remain totally committed to keeping our young people safe.'

The NCA is launching a new #OnlineSafetyAtHome campaign through its education team at CEOP – the Child Exploitation and Online Protection command.

Its warning comes as children’s charities warned that the lockdown was creating a spike in dangerous online activity targeting children.

The UK children’s charities said they had seen intelligence from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, which monitors online chat rooms, showing paedophiles were already coaching each other and sharing tips on how to target bored and anxious children at home.

One quote found by the CCCP in a chatroom read: "With potentially millions of boys around the world being or soon to be forced to stay home from school, potentially unsupervised if parents are working (teens in particular) now is the time for cappers (people who trick children into doing inappropriate things on camera) to do their part to assist the quarantine efforts.

“There is a dire need for enriching, structured activities for all these boys to engage in.”

John Carr OBE, secretary of the Children’s Charities’ Coalition for Internet Safety (CCCIS), which represents organisations like the NSPCC and Barnardo’s, said: “The message, I'm afraid, is clear: Some very bad people are trying to exploit the current situation. They are being provided with almost the ideal conditions to do so, with harassed parents, bored kids and unlimited time stretching into the far distance. We are urging parents to be extra vigilant during the lockdown.”

This week, the NSPCC also warned that the threat to children was increasing on social media as tech giants had had to send a proportion of their moderators who monitor the sites for grooming home because of the Coronavirus outbreak.

Tech giants have said they are stepping up efforts to monitor their sites with machine learning in lieu of human moderators. Andy Burrows, Head of Child Safety Online Policy at the NSPCC, said: “The impact of the coronavirus lockdown has increased online risks and brewed a perfect storm for offenders to abuse children.

“The public health emergency is creating major challenges across society, and like all of us tech firms must adapt. It’s vital they set out how they are prioritising protecting children by identifying and disrupting offenders with fewer moderation resources available.”