Non-photographic child sexual abuse

URL analysis

The IWF’s remit includes the identification and removal of UK-hosted webpages depicting non-photographic child sexual abuse imagery (Prohibited Images of Children) which is covered under The Coroners and Justice Act 2009. More about how this relates to IWF work can be found here. These URLs depict drawings, computer generated imagery (CGI), animations and other non-photographic representations of child sexual abuse that are not photo realistic representations of children.

  • In 2024, we identified 460 URLs of non-photographic child sexual abuse imagery (a 64% increase from 2023);
  • 3 of which were confirmed as UK-hosted content for which we issued three notices requesting their removal. These are the first to be actioned since 2016.

Given that non-photographic child sexual abuse imagery is criminal in the UK but not criminal in all countries, we were unable to seek the removal of this content from many other jurisdictions. Therefore, we added these URLs to our Non-Photographic Imagery (NPI) List, to support those companies who want to prevent access to this content.

  • At the end of 2024, 380 unique URLs of non-photographic child sexual abuse imagery were listed on the NPI URL List. Out of 206 IWF Members, 38 subscribe to this service.

What can we do about this?

The UK is one of the few countries in the world where non-photographic child sexual abuse imagery is criminal.

If we find this content hosted in the UK, we issue a notice to the hosting provider, who removes it. Technology companies additionally want the flexibility of being able to block and filter this type of imagery to prevent their customers from stumbling across it.

Therefore, we created the NPI List, which contains URLs depicting drawings, computer generated imagery (CGI), animations and other non-photographic representations of child sexual abuse which is hosted outside the UK.

The URLs provided in the NPI List are those deemed at the time of assessment to breach UK legislation, specifically Sections 62 to 69 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009. Several international technology companies use this list to protect their services for their customers.