Children under 16 should be banned from social networks such as WhatsApp and TikTok unless tech firms shore up safety measures, police chiefs said.

The heads of the National Crime Agency and the National Police Chiefs Council said new laws should be introduced to minimise children's access to potentially harmful material while the 'online world remains a Wild West'.

The organisations have made a stream of recommendations to a consultation into how young people use social media, with the idea of a full social media ban for under-16s under consideration.

NCA director Graeme Biggar said he had major concerns about how some tech firms failed to protect children.

And he called on the Government to ban their use by children if the platforms did not introduce saftey measures.

He said: 'Online platforms have design features that criminals exploit to target children.

'Given the scale of abuse and harm, these features should not be available on apps used by children.

'Either the tech companies remove the features that make their platforms unsafe, or the Government should ban the platform from under 16.

'If the apps aren't safe, they shouldn't be available to children.'

These features include end-to-end encryption, a security measure which makes messages unreadable to anyone but the sender and the recipient, and algorithms that promote harmful and illegal content such as sexual, violent or self-harm content.

He also called on the Government to introduce device level nudity controls, so that under 18s cannot take, share, or view nude images or videos.

He said: 'Given the level of harm that our officers are seeing day in and day out, we are very conscious that the longer we wait, more children will be failed.'

NPCC chairman Chief Constable Gavin Stephens said children were increasingly at the mercy of online predators while tech firms and law-makers were failing to introduce measures to better guarantee their safety.

He said: 'If I've got one big worry for the future it is the fact that - as a society, as a government, as police and law enforcement, as tech giants - we don't get a grip of this risk to our children and vulnerable people.

'In every other everyday walk of life there are laws and safeguards in place to protect children, yet in the online world it remains somewhat a Wild West where the legislation and regulation have not kept up with the pace of the technology.

'So we need a different approach.'

The pair said the call for action was 'not about punishing children', and said it was the dangerous features - not the platforms themselves - that were the problem.

Mr Biggar added: 'If the companies change and remove those features or have them in a way with a design that is safe, then you don't need to ban the app.'

The Government's consultation ends next week.