Kevin Bacon is optimistic that paedophilia will soon be a thing of the past after conducting research for his latest role.

Bacon, who stars in The Woodsman, a movie about a man convicted for a paedophilic offence, has said that his research for the part left him confident that paedophilia should be on its way out.

He explained: "What we need to do is have some kind of a situation where somebody who is having feelings that they seem to be feeling themselves can reach out. There is this fantastic organisation called Stop It Now. They have a website and their number is 888-Prevent.

"It's a place where you could go if you're seeing signs of this in somebody else, or somebody in your family or you yourself are having feelings that may be disturbing. That seems a logical thing that's never been attempted before."