The IWF also reveals that 80 percent of the children in abusive images are female and 91 percent appear to be under 12 years old.
The challenge to have commercial Web sites 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. Ninety percent of commercial child abuse sites appear to be hosted in the US and Russia. (The IWF can only trace Web sites to the last known authenticated hosting company or service provider and then provides this information to the relevant agencies in that country.)
The IWF also states that it has managed a 34 percent increase in reports processed by its hotline. The reports led to the confirmation of 10,656 URLs, on 3077 Web sites, containing potentially illegal child abuse content. 82.5 percent of all the Web sites were apparently linked to the US or Russia, up from 67.9 percent in 2005.
"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 Web sites, mean the victims' abuse can be perpetuated for many years as the images are repeatedly viewed," said Peter Robbins, IWF CEO. "The increase in reports processed by our hotline team is due in part to the increased awareness of our organization but also to the identification of a growing trend in the use of remote image storage facilities."
Some commercial child abuse Web sites store their images remotely and occasionally in fragments, often hosted on different servers around the world. By distancing the parent site from the actual images and breaking up the image itself, those operating commercial child abuse Web sites are clearly trying to protect their content from removal and complicate the detection process.
The Annual Report also reveals for the first time a significant increase in the abuse of photo sharing Web sites 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 percent of those URLs confirmed to have child abuse content.
Key Figures 2006
- 31,776 reports processed by IWF 'Hotline' (34 percent increase on 2005)
- Less than 1 percent of all child abuse content hosted in the UK since 2003
- 80 percent victims in all the URLs (individual images) confirmed to be abusive are female
- 91 percent of victims in URLs confirmed to be abusive appear to be under 12 years old
- Child abuse images (commercial and non-commercial) of levels 4 and 5 (the most severe) increased from 7 percent in 2003 to 29 percent in 2006, of all confirmed abusive URLs
- 57 percent of commercial child abuse domains known to IWF contain image level 4 and 5 in 2006
Longevity
- 94 commercial Web sites 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
- 10,656 individual URLs containing child abuse content (74 percent increase on 2005)
- 3,077 domains account for all these URLs
- 1,667 of these domains were commercial Web sites
- 10.5 percent of all URLs with child abuse content in 2006 were on photo album Web sites
- 62 percent of commercial child abuse domains hosted in US
- 28 percent commercial child abuse domains hosted in Russia
- In 2006 IWF provided 11 evidential statements supporting UK police enquiries
- Gave evidence given at 5 UK trials
- 42 reports from IWF still under investigation
