New data shows online child sexual abuse material rising

Call for lawmakers to act quickly as new data shows child sexual abuse reports are soaring in wake of pandemic.

Europe’s largest hotline, the Internet Watch Foundation, is using this year’s Safer Internet Day to urge the European Commission to bring forward long awaited legislation to address the growing threat to children online.

In 2021 the IWF actioned 182,281 URLs containing images or videos of “self-generated” material. This is a 374% increase on pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, the IWF took action to remove 38,424 URLs.

Child sexual abuse images generated in this way now account for nearly three quarters (72%) of all the content the IWF works to remove online.

Young girls are at particular risk. Ten years ago (in 2011), they accounted for 60% of the children seen in child sexual abuse images. That has now risen to 97%.

Experts are calling on the European Commission to speed up new legislation to protect children online as new data shows reports of imagery of child sexual abuse captured via a webcam has “exploded” following the coronavirus pandemic.

Read more at Politics.co.uk