Sixty kids a week referred to anti-extremism body Prevent A police chief insists the anti-extremism scheme is fundamental to counter-terrorism efforts and not a "spying operation".
More than 20 people a day were referred to the Government's controversial anti-extremism Prevent programme according to latest figures - nearly half of them children.
The figures covering the year to the end of March 2016 showed about 7,500 people were referred to the scheme, with 54% of these relating to Islamic extremism.
They showed 610 of these, or 8%, were under 10, while 3,100 were under 18.
Simon Cole, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for Prevent, defended the scheme against what he called "hysterical" criticism.