The UK’s Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) Annual Report 2009 has revealed the existence of at least 450 distinct criminal ‘brands’ selling images and videos of the sexual abuse of children worldwide.
The ten most prolific ‘brands’ account for more than 650 unique web pages. The Foundation believes the stats give an indication of the scale of the pay-per-view child sexual abuse business online.
2009 figures:
- The IWF assessed 38,173 reports of online content;
- It took further action on 8,844 occasions against web pages depicting child sexual abuse content, across 1,316 websites around the world;
- 48% of all child sexual abuse content reports processed (commercial and non-commercial) were traced to networks in North America; 44% to Europe and Russia;
- IWF issued 40 notices to companies to remove child sexual abuse content in the UK
The severity of the content dealt with by the IWF is extremely serious with 72% of child victims appearing to be between 0 and 10 years old and 44% of images depicting the rape or sexual torture of a child.
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