The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has today marked its third Awareness Day with the publication of new data showing more people than ever are using its hotline to report potentially illegal content on the internet.
Despite receiving over 27,000 reports – a five per cent increase on the same period last year – only one in five (5,742) were confirmed by the IWF as images of child sexual abuse.
The figure has been falling for three years suggesting a decrease in the availability of the content on the internet.
And almost all of the images (over 99 per cent) were traced to servers outside the UK.
The IWF claims as a result of its consistent efforts, and those by the internet industry, it is now extremely rare for child sexual abuse images to be on UK websites.
When they are, the IWF works in partnership with the hosting provider and the police to have them removed.
During the first three quarters of this year, the IWF has issued 25 notices to companies in the UK about the abuse of their networks for the distribution of these images.
Each notice was complied with and every identified instance of online child sexual abuse content in the UK was removed within a day of notification.
Commenting on the figures, Eve Salomon, IWF chair, said: 'With the help of our hotline, the UK has an excellent record in eradicating child sexual abuse images on the internet in partnership with 35 other hotlines around the world and with the support of our 100 industry members.
'These websites are reducing in number globally and where they are sited in the UK, they are removed extremely quickly.
'If you stumble across child sexual abuse images, it's crucial you report it to us. We are focussed on the swift removal of these images and helping the international effort to bring those responsible to justice and rescue children from sexual exploitation.'
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