Internet Watch Foundation

There was a 42.22% increase in the number of child abuse leads dealt with by the hotline, up from 3340 to 4751. Actioned reports have risen 78% from 741 to 1319, with a continued even split of approx 50/50 between PPV and non PPV websites.

 

One IP block accounted for 37.89% (94) of US hosted PPV sites in this first quarter. This IP block first came to notice for hosting child abuse images on 24/11/2004 and between then and 31/12/2004 we reported the IP block for hosting child abuse images on 9 further occasions. These sites are staying live on average for 19 days prior to removal.

Work on message boards has highlighted the increased use of Japanese free hosts to share paedophilic content. Japanese sites accounted for 2.61% of Non PPV sites reported in 2004 and 28.05% in 2005.

 

23 groups – are listed that fail the ‘regularity’ test

77 groups – are listed that fail the ‘names’ test as potentially illegal advertisements

7 groups – are listed that advertise or advocate paedophile content or activity

 

Spam - There continues to be several heavy spamming campaigns which have used a variation of yahoo geocities addresses to advertise the same sites. Most child abuse sites advertised continue to be hosted in the US and Russia. China/Hong Kong also accounted for twenty eight reports compared to none in 2004.

 

Since October 2004 China/Hong Kong is emerging as one of the preferred hosting countries for pornography websites, including both adult & child abuse PPV sites.

It is evident that offenders are choosing to use Japanese message boards to post their messages/images as they find that although they are generally slower to up/download material onto they are staying active much longer than the previously preferred South Korean boards.

 

Groups & Communities – At present there appears to be little activity with Groups & Communities. Only three groups have been reported during the 1^st Quarter of 2005. It might be that those who were using these groups have moved onto other means of sharing possibly message boards or P2P.

 

34.98% drop in reported adult content sites from 709 to 461.

No actionable criminally obscene adult content has been hosted in the UK this year.

 

The drop in adult content reports may be due to the introduction of our new website which clarifies our role in dealing with adult content. Also, the general public’s use of enhanced spam filters could be influencing the volume of reports. However, 16.7% of adult material reported to the hotline would potentially breach UK law if hosted in the UK. 

 

A modest increase of 6.76% in reports received, up from 74 to 79 reports. The majority of reports received refer to Extreme Right Wing or White Power sites (25.32%). Following several changes in staff at Racial and Violent Crimes Task Force (R&VCTF) we no longer have a referral point within the Police Service.  Some police units, including the anti terrorist squad SO13, will take reports if it falls within their remit but only for intelligence purposes. This is a matter we are pursuing with the Home Office Faith Unit.

 

Following the departure of three analysts in the final three months of 2004, three new trainee analysts were appointed during January. These new appointees appear to be settling in well and have completed most of their initial training.

 

43 Police Intelligence reports were submitted during 1^st Quarter of 2005

Reports include:

15 reports on Chat

3 reports on Yahoo profiles

2 Advertisements on WAP offering children for sex

 

Enquiries from Police have increased to approximately 50+ per week, generally as a result of spam emails/ websites reported to them. However, included in this figure are enquiries of our database on previously actioned sites.  These enquiries resulted in seven witness statements being made to support the prosecution of offenders.

 

Overall, total reports processed year against year for the first quarter period, have increased by 22.89% and unique reports from the public have risen by 15.1%. Coupled with this and the development of leads by the team, the actionable content has risen by 78%.

 

Adrian Dwyer

Hotline Team Leader