A government minister needs to be tasked with the responsibility of protecting children from sexual exploitation, a leading charity says.
Barnardo's said across the UK there was a lack of awareness "from front-line children's services to the corridors of Whitehall" of grooming and trafficking.
The charity said exploitation was happening in "every town and city" and it was seeing victims as young as 13.
The Department for Education said it was focused on tackling the issue.
A spokeswoman said: "Child sexual exploitation is an appalling crime - it is a form of child sexual abuse and must not be tolerated.
"This is a complex problem and we are determined to tackle it effectively by working collaboratively right across government and with national and local agencies."
Study launchedBarnardo's said its specialist teams had worked with victims who had been moved between towns and cities, a form of trafficking which suggested that the exploitation of young people was becoming more organised.
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End Quote Anne Marie Carrie Barnardo'sBarnardo's knows that sexual exploitation is going on in every town and city in the UK and child victims continue to go unidentified"
The charity said it worked with around 1,000 sexually exploited girls and boys last year but she said that was "likely to be the tip of the iceberg".
It added that some victims as young as 10 years old had been helped.
The call comes as the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) begins a study to "to identify any patterns of offending, victimisation or vulnerability".
Earlier this month two Asian men were jailed in Derby for sexually abusing several teenage girls. The former home secretary Jack Straw later claimed some Asian men believed white girls were "easy meat" but he was immediately criticised for his remarks.
Anne Marie Carrie, who has taken over as Barnardo's chief executive, said the children at the heart of the issue had "been forgotten as discussion has focused on the ethnicity of perpetrators in high-profile cases".
Ms Carrie said "without a minister with overall responsibility the government response is likely to remain inadequate".
"Barnardo's knows that sexual exploitation is going on in every town and city in the UK and child victims continue to go unidentified as tell-tale signs are overlooked due to a lack of awareness that stretches from front-line children's services to the corridors of Whitehall," Ms Carrie said.
"These vulnerable defenceless girls and boys, who crave love and attention, are groomed then abused in the most callous and calculated way, leaving them deeply traumatised and scarred for life."
She warned that internet and mobile phone technology were also increasingly being used by abusers.
Penny Nicholls, director of children and young people at The Children's Society, echoed Ms Carrie's remarks and urged the government to make a single government minister responsible for the issue.
She said: "Too many children and young people are being sexually exploited in the shadows of society, groomed in secret by heartless gangs of sexual predators or bogus boyfriends who shower vulnerable children with gifts and lure them to be horrifically exploited, sometimes for years on end.
"It can happen to any child and it is time we shone a powerful light on this hidden abuse suffered by children as young as 11 and 12 in cities and towns across the UK."
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