IWF reveals 10 year statistics on child abuse images online
Tuesday 24 October 2006
Marking its tenth anniversary, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) today revealed statistics and trends from a decade combating illegal online content. Since its inception in 1996, the organisation has processed an average of 1,000 reports a month with more than 31,000 websites found to contain potentially illegal child abuse content.
Its primary aim is to work in partnership at home and abroad with other hotlines to identify and remove potentially illegal child abuse content wherever it is hosted in the world. From its origins as the only authorised UK ‘Hotline’ dealing with such material, at least 23 other countries now have a similar facility.
The outstanding success of the UK approach has seen the number of reported child abuse websites hosted in the UK rapidly decrease from 18% in its first year to 0.2% today.
The development of technology and increasingly sophisticated tracing methods have led to the IWF combating online child abuse content in areas such as online photo sharing services, message boards and proprietary groups as well as newsgroups and websites.
|
Key IWF statistics and trends over the last 10 years
615 reports processed in our first year, 27,750 reports processed in our tenth year
18% of online child abuse images reported in our first year were hosted in UK whereas just 0.2% of online child abuse images reported in our tenth year were hosted in the UK
79% of the child victims featured in the images are female
Of all reports processed over the period, 92% relate to web-based content and 7% to newsgroups
There is a 50/50 split between those who file reports anonymously and those who give their details
Of all reports processed:
A third of all reported child abuse websites are confirmed by IWF to be potentially illegal
Of all reported content confirmed to contain child abuse content over the past decade:
There has been a significant increase over the last twelve months in the severity of the abuse depicted on commercial child abuse websites.
Of commercial child abuse websites traced during the last 6 months and reported to Hotlines and law enforcement agencies around the world, 62% were removed within a month, 38% were still active after a month and 2% were still live after 6 months. |
To raise awareness of its work, the organisation will reveal its full 10 year statistics and new intelligence in London on 24th October 2006. Home Office Minister, Vernon Coaker MP, will address the 250 delegates including parliamentarians, teachers, child protection workers, police, local authorities, industry representatives, and IT professionals.
Home Office Minister, Vernon Coaker MP, said: “I am delighted to mark the IWF’s landmark campaign and pay tribute to its work over the past decade. The Government is determined to do everything it can to protect children from the insidious use of the internet by paedophiles.
“It is crucial to raise awareness amongst UK internet users about the IWF as a vehicle to report their inadvertent exposure to illegal content. This campaign underlines the importance of the work by the IWF and the ISPs to block UK residents from accessing potentially illegal websites, wherever they are hosted, by the end of 2007.”
Peter Robbins, IWF Chief Executive, said: “Founded by the internet industry in 1996, the IWF has gone on to secure a membership of over 70 companies and organisations and has almost eradicated online child abuse images hosted in the UK.
“We are proud to share our successful self regulatory model with other countries. Our achievements are testament to an outstanding partnership approach, securing support from the internet and mobile industry, public, Government and the police and many others, however, there is still important work to be done in raising the public’s awareness of our work so we can engage with others hotlines around the world to have these dreadful images of child abuse removed as quickly as possible. ”
The conference event will be replicated in Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Bristol and will coincide with advertising in each region. The new advertising can be seen on the IWF website: www.iwf.org.uk.
IWF would like to express its gratitude to Central Hall Westminster, Millennium Copthorne Hotels and Jurys Bristol Hotel for their generous support in providing the venues free of charge for the national conference events.
-ends-
Media contacts
iris PR
Bill McIntyre, iris PR, 0207 654 7987, 07769 974891, bill.mcintyre@iris-pr.com
IWF
Sarah Robertson, IWF, 01223 237700, 07929 553679, sarah@iwf.org.uk
Home Office
Home Office Minister, Vernon Coaker MP, Amanda Jordan OBE, IWF Chair, Peter Robbins QPM, IWF CEO and Jim Gamble, CEOP CEO will be available for interview at Central Hall Westminster from 9.15 am until 9.45am on Tuesday 24 October 2006.
About the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)
The IWF is the only authorised organisation in the UK operating an internet ‘hotline’ for the public and IT professionals to report their exposure to potentially illegal content online.
Our aim is to minimise the availability of potentially illegal internet content, specifically:
- child abuse images hosted anywhere in the world
- criminally obscene content hosted in the UK
- incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK
We work in partnership with UK Government departments such as the Home Office and the Department of Trade and Industry to influence initiatives and programmes developed to combat online abuse. This dialogue goes beyond the UK and Europe, to ensure greater awareness of global issues and responsibilities.
Through the hotline reporting system, we help 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.
As a result, only 0.2% of potentially illegal content is apparently hosted in the UK, down from 18% in 1997.
Please note that the terms "child pornography" or "child porn" can act to legitimise images which are not pornography. Rather, they are permanent records of children being sexually abused and as such should be referred to as child abuse images.
Created: Sat, October 21st, 2006 | Last Modified: Wed, March 14th, 2007