Analysis by age

Overview
0-2-years-old
3-6-years-old
7-10-years-old
11-13-years-old
14-15-years-old
16-17-years-old

Overview

 

The following analysis is based upon reports, rather than image-based assessments. Reports contain at least one, but often many tens, hundreds or thousands of images and videos showing child sexual abuse.

Age comparison over the past three years

This chart provides a three-year look at the number, and proportion, of child sexual abuse URLs identified by IWF analysts, split by age of the youngest child seen in any image upon that URL.

 

Over the past three years, children aged 11-13 are most often seen; however, a 4 percentage point fall in the relative proportion of children aged 11-13 was seen between 2022 and 2023. We also noted a 5 percentage point increase in the number of 7–10-year-old children. 

This is a 100% increase in reports showing the sexual abuse of children aged 7-10 since 2021.

2023 reports by age breakdown

This chart provides a breakdown for all child sexual abuse reports in 2023, by age of the youngest child seen on a webpage.

 

When our analysts assess a report, the age classification is based on the youngest child visible in the imagery; for example, a video including a 2-year-old, a 7-year-old and a 13-year-old would be assessed as ‘0-2’ to reflect the age of the youngest child. 

The same approach is applied to severity, with the most severe category of abuse visible in the imagery being recorded. In a composite image or video showing every category of abuse (from A to C), the analyst would log an assessment of Category A.

Where some reports include multiple images or videos displayed on a single URL, the same rule of ‘youngest visible child’ and ‘most severe visible category’ is applied. Sex can be recorded as Boys, Girls, Both or - in rare cases - Unidentified.

0-2-years-old

As in previous years, in 2023 we saw a greater proportion of Category A images – showing the most severe, sadistic forms of sexual abuse – involving babies, toddlers and even newborns.  We have seen an 11 percentage point increase in reports showing Category A child sexual abuse material and 0-2-year-olds from 2022 (81% in 2022, to 92% in 2023).

0-2-year-olds - severity of abuse

  • Category A - 1,447 (92%): Images involving penetrative sexual activity; images involving sexual activity with an animal or sadism.
  • Category B - 117 (7%): Images involving non-penetrative sexual activity.
  • Category C - 11 (1%): Other indecent images not falling within categories A or B.

Hover or click chart segments for values.

0-2-year-olds - sex of victims

Where ‘both’ boys and girls are seen in the report, this does not necessarily indicate the presence of a boy aged 0-2 with a girl aged 0-2, as one of the sexes may be from an older age group.  

3-6-years-old

Although we saw a lower number of images including younger children in 2023, the proportion showing Category A abuse was significantly higher than last year, increasing to 71% from 50% in 2022.  

3-6-year-olds - severity of abuse

  • Category A - 4,334 (71%): Images involving penetrative sexual activity; images involving sexual activity with animals or sadism.
  • Category B - 953 (16%): Images involving non-penetrative sexual activity.
  • Category C - 807 (13%): Other indecent images not falling within categories A or B.

Hover or click chart segments for values.

3-6-year-olds - sex of victims

7-10-years-old

In 2023, we saw a 25% increase in the number of images involving children aged 7-10 years old. This follows similarly steep increases year on year since 2020; the number of images including children in this age group has risen by 213% in that time. Pre-pubescent children are increasingly likely to appear in ‘self-generated’ imagery, suggesting that they are vulnerable to grooming and abuse even within their own homes.

7-10-year-olds - severity of abuse

  • Category A - 20,395 (18%): Images involving penetrative sexual activity; images involving sexual activity with animals or sadism.
  • Category B - 21,952 (19%): Images involving non-penetrative sexual activity.
  • Category C - 70,393 (62%): Other indecent images not falling within categories A or B.

Hover or click chart segments for values.

7-10-year-olds - sex of victims

11-13-years-old

Every year, we see more sexual abuse images of children aged 11-13 than of any other age group, and the overwhelming majority of those victims are female. 2023 saw a modest increase of 1% in the volume of imagery involving this age group but it was still the largest group overall.

11-13-year-olds - severity of abuse

  • Category A - 34,809 (24%): Images involving penetrative sexual activity; images involving sexual activity with animals or sadism.
  • Category B - 37,352 (25%): Images involving non-penetrative sexual activity.
  • Category C - 75,149 (51%): Other indecent images not falling within categories A or B.

Hover or click chart segments for values.

11-13-year-olds - sex of victims

14-15-years-old

While girls are especially likely to be targeted and abused online, we saw an increase in the number of male victims among this age group in 2023 from 121 reports which included 14-15-year-old boys in 2022, to 333 in 2023.

14-15-year-olds - severity of abuse

  • Category A - 1,321 (33%): Images involving penetrative sexual activity; images involving sexual activity with animals or sadism.
  • Category B - 1,122 (28%): Images involving non-penetrative sexual activity.
  • Category C - 1,613 (40%): Other indecent images not falling within categories A or B.

Hover or click chart segments for values.

14-15-year-olds - sex of victims

16-17-years-old

Increasing numbers of teenagers are using Report Remove to flag intimate images and videos to us that have been shared online without their permission.

Report Remove empowers children to reclaim control of their images by making a report, allowing the images to be hashed and removed from the internet. These reports are often cases of sexually-coerced extortion (or ‘sextortion’), where images or videos are obtained of the child and demands for money or more explicit imagery are made in exchange for that image not being distributed – a distressing trend that has grown exponentially in recent years.

We have seen a proportional increase in Category B reports of 16-17-year-olds from 9% in 2022 to 20% in 2023 (118 in 2022 to 243 reports in 2023: a 106% increase in numbers terms).

The number of boys whose images and videos were hashed – and potentially stopped from appearing online - after using the Report Remove service increased twelvefold in 2023.

Learn more about Report Remove here.

16-17-year-olds - severity of abuse

  • Category A - 336 (28%): Images involving penetrative sexual activity; images involving sexual activity with animals or sadism.
  • Category B - 243 (20%): Images involving non-penetrative sexual activity.
  • Category C - 623 (52%): Other indecent images not falling within categories A or B.

Hover or click chart segments for values.

16-17-year-olds - sex of victims