Europe ‘hub’ for child sexual abuse content

Europe is becoming the global hub for the hosting of child sexual abuse images and videos, reports BBC quoting a report of IWF. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) found that 60% of worldwide abuse material was now in Europe - an increase of 19%. The Netherlands topped the list of European nations hosting the illegal content, said the IWF. Improved reporting and policing by net firms in North America are believed to have driven the shift. "The situation is reversed from previous years," said Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of the IWF. "Europe is now the biggest host of child sexual abuse imagery, rather than North America." The IWF is the UK body that acts to find and remove abuse content from UK networks. Escalating demand In 2015, about 57% of the web pages containing abuse content could be found in North America, according to the IWF figures. In 2016, this had dropped to 37% with the majority now in Europe.
The IWF report said about 34,212 web pages were found to be displaying abuse content in Europe - which also includes Russia and Turkey.
Ms Hargreaves said the shift "could reflect the great work taking place by the US industry to tackle the problem" that had forced criminals to look elsewhere for hosts that would let them upload and share content. The change was a "remarkable indication" of the work being done by US ISPs to identify, remove and report the content, said John Shehan, vice-president of the exploited children division of the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). American laws requiring ISPs to inform the authorities when images were found on their networks had driven a steep rise in reports to NCMEC, he said. In 2015, the number of reports it received topped 4.4 million and in 2016, 8.2 million, Already in 2017, said Mr Shehan, the organisation had received more than two million reports.

 

Europe hub for child sexual abuse content

Europe is becoming the global hub for the hosting of child sexual abuse images and videos, reports BBC quoting a report of IWF. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) found that 60% of worldwide abuse material was now in Europe - an increase of 19%. The Netherlands topped the list of European nations hosting the illegal content, said the IWF. Improved reporting and policing by net firms in North America are believed to have driven the shift. The situation is reversed from previous years, said Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of the IWF. Europe is now the biggest host of child sexual abuse imagery, rather than North America. The IWF is the UK body that acts to find and remove abuse content from UK networks. Escalating demand In 2015, about 57% of the web pages containing abuse content could be found in North America, according to the IWF figures. In 2016, this had dropped to 37% with the majority now in Europe. The IWF report said about 34,212 web pages were found to be displaying abuse content in Europe - which also includes Russia and Turkey. Ms Hargreaves said the shift could reflect the great work taking place by the US industry to tackle the problem that had forced criminals to look elsewhere for hosts that would let them upload and share content. The change was a remarkable indication of the work being done by US ISPs to identify, remove and report the content, said John Shehan, vice-president of the exploited children division of the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). American laws requiring ISPs to inform the authorities when images were found on their networks had driven a steep rise in reports to NCMEC, he said. In 2015, the number of reports it received topped 4.4 million and in 2016, 8.2 million, Already in 2017, said Mr Shehan, the organisation had received more than two million reports.