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The number of people convicted of sex offences against children under 16 in England and Wales has increased by nearly 60 per cent since 2005, in investigation has found.
The BBC said a freedom of information request to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) found that while there were 1,363 convictions in 2005, there were 2,135 in 2010.
The report from the broadcaster attributed the rise to better detection and wider awareness.
Child protection groups say the number is relatively small and it remains an under-reported crime.
Donald Findlater from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a child protection charity, said the increase in convictions could suggest courts were increasingly likely to find people guilty, even if the number of children reporting abuse remained the same.
"They need to have the language skills to say what's happening to them and to understand it's wrong," he said.
"It's still the case that most children who are sexually abused do not report it."
Chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, Peter Davies, told the BBC: "It is good news as it's a good indicator that police services and others are getting their act together."
He added that authorities did not use conviction numbers as a primary measure of success because it was an under-reported crime and hard to prosecute as there tended to be few witnesses.
Quarterly statistics by the MoJ are published on sexual offences against children every quarter but this does not include children who were raped. The figures obtained by the broadcaster cover all sex offences against children.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd
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