Figures show online child abuse rise

There has been a four-fold rise in online child abuse, according to new figures from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF).

The annual report, launched this week, shows the severity of online child abuse content is increasing, with a four-fold rise in images depicting the most severe abuse, such as penetrative and sadistic sexual activity.

This trend reflects an apparent growing demand for purchasing more severe images with nearly 60 per cent of commercial child abuse websites selling child rape images. Twenty-nine per cent of all potentially illegal child abuse URLs known to the IWF contain level four and five images.

The IWF also revealed that 80 per cent of the children in abusive images are female and 91 per cent appear to be under 12 years old.

The challenge to have commercial websites removed from the web is a still a serious one, with some of the most prolific sites avoiding closure by ‘hopping’ servers across different legal jurisdictions. One site, for example, has been reported 224 times to the IWF since 2002. This underlines the need for unified international efforts to combat child abuse content.

The IWF also states that it has managed a 34 per cent increase in reports processed by its ‘hotline’. The reports led to the confirmation of 10,656 URLs, on 3,077 websites, containing potentially illegal child abuse content. Of these, 82.5 per cent of all the websites were apparently linked to the US or Russia, up from 67.9 per cent in 2005.

Peter Robbins QPM, IWF CEO, said: “Sadly, we have to report new trends regarding the young age of the child victims in the images we assess and the dreadful severity of abuse they are suffering and these facts, coupled with the longevity of some commercial websites, mean the victims’ abuse can be perpetuated for many years as the images are repeatedly viewed.

“The increase in reports processed by our ‘hotline’ team is due in part to the increased awareness of our organisation but also to the identification of a growing trend in the use of remote image storage facilities. The UK has virtually eradicated the hosting of potentially illegal online child abuse content within its virtual borders.”

The annual report also reveals for the first time a significant increase in the abuse of photo sharing websites by offenders.

In 2004, no images posted on photo album sites were added to the IWF’s database, however, they now account for 10.5 per cent of those URLs confirmed to have child abuse content.

Key Findings

• 31,776 reports were processed by IWF ‘hotline’ (34 per cent increase on 2005).
• 80 per cent of victims in all the URLs (individual images) confirmed to be abusive are female.
• 91 per cent of victims in URLs were confirmed to be abusive appear to be under 12 years old.
• 94 commercial websites reported by IWF to relevant authorities in 2006 have been actively selling child abuse images since 2005, 33 live since 2004, 32 live since before 2004.
• 62 per cent of commercial child abuse domains are hosted in US.
• 28 per cent of commercial child abuse domains is hosted in Russia.
• In 2006 IWF provided 11 evidential statements supporting UK police enquiries. It has also given evidence at five UK trials.