New Study Shows Online Child Porn Problem

The British-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has released the results of a study on online child pornography that shows the problem seems to be worsening rather than improving.

 

It’s also working with major Internet companies to publicize a UK hotline by which those who stumble across the sites when surfing can report them to police.

 

According to the study, 1.5 million UK users, or one in 20 of all UK adults Web users, have been exposed to child pornography online. Child sexual abuse content hosted in the UK has dropped from 18 per cent in 1997 to less than 1 per cent since 2003, in large part due to the efforts of the IWF.

 

However, the study says, the content now available online has become more graphic and violent.

 

Peter Robbins, the CEO of IWF, said in a statement:

 

“Nearly 1 in 3 of the children depicted in sexually abusive images (29%) appear to be under the age of 6, with 1 in 20 appearing to be under the age of 2. 77 % of the children in the images are female. New information also shows the severity of abuse images continues to rise with 35% of all child sexual abuse URLs known to the IWF containing the most severe forms of abuse, such as child rape and sexual assault involving sadism and bestiality.”

 

The IWF, along with ISPs and other partners, held an Awareness Day yesterday to publicize the hotline. The hotline helps ISPs to combat abuse of their services through a ‘notice and take-down’ service by alerting them to any potentially illegal content on their systems and simultaneously inviting the police to investigate the publisher.