One in three child porn images are now selfies

[Wilhelm]

• Report shows 'self-generated' content increased from 349 cases in January 2017 to 1,717 this January
• Internet Watch Foundation said children are mirroring what society is doing
• Figures also revealed there are more sites than ever before hosting child abuse 

By Emily Kent Smith Media And Technology Reporter For The Daily Mail

Published: 02:01 BST, 18 April 2018 | Updated: 22:17 BST, 18 April 2018

Nearly a third of reported child abuse images are now selfies, a report by a leading charity has revealed.

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which produced the report, revealed that the number of 'self-generated' content has risen from 349 cases in January 2017 to 1,717 this January, reports the Daily Telegraph.

The Deputy CEO of the IWF, Fred Langford said: ‘Children are reading about their favourite stars sending sexy pictures, posing naked, so they are just mirroring what society is doing at the moment. 

 

New research has revealed that nearly one in three child abuse images are taken by the youngsters themselves before they end up on adult websites

'What they are seeing online is much more available, it is opening their eyes to what is out there at a much earlier age…’

‘It does make certain children much more pliable, the longer they are online and the sorts of groups they are in, they may be more susceptible to the grooming than those children who have brought up that level of resilience,’ he added. 

Figures released today also show that there are more sites hosting child abuse than ever before - soaring by 37 per cent in the last year - with the NSPCC calling on Culture Secretary Matt Hancock to ‘step in and end the Wild West of the web’.

The IWF said paedophiles were going to more extreme lengths to view content - with the charity locked in an ‘arms race’ against abusers.

Analysis revealed that the number of disguised websites, which are harder for authorities to track, had rocketed by 86 per cent.

The deputy head of the IWF warned the fact that young people were being exposed to more graphic content online could play into the hands of child abusers.

Children’s charity the NSPCC said that the dark web and the use of disguised websites were ‘fuelling’ child abuse and allowing predators to offend at a ‘mass scale’.

Disguised websites can only be accessed if a specific online pathway is followed. For example, a person would be directed to a hidden page from a forum discussing child abuse. But if another web user, who has not been on a child abuse site previously, clicks on the page, they could come up with legitimate adult content instead.

The problem is booming with the rise of technology and a ‘comprehensive strategy’ required to stop ‘offenders in their tracks’, the NSPCC has said.

A spokesman said: ‘Social networks must ensure that they prioritise child protection and we need the Culture Secretary, Matt Hancock, to step in and end the Wild West of the Web.’ The IWF found 78,589 URLs featuring disturbing content last year - a 37 per cent rise compared to 2017. The number of child sexual abuse websites had also exploded by 112 per cent.

The figure had soared partly because its staff had become better at finding the horrific content, the charity said. Every seven minutes, the IWF finds footage of a child being sexually abused.

 

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which produced the report, said there are more sites hosting child abuse than ever before - soaring by 37 per cent in the last year - with the NSPCC calling on Culture Secretary Matt Hancock to ‘step in and end the Wild West of the web’

Fresh imagery was being regularly produced in addition to the historic content being shared again and again.

Alarmingly, the charity is also finding more videos of children aged 11 to 15 who create footage of themselves on a webcam and then share it online.

‘The amount of content that is out there is always growing, it’s never going to reduce,’ the IWF’s deputy CEO Mr Langford said.

Around a third of the material uncovered featured the most severe abuse - category A which includes the rape and sexual torture of children.

People were ‘seeking out something just a little bit more extreme’, Mr Langford said, adding: ‘Once the demand is there, the supply follows.’ Writing in the report’s foreword, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said there was ‘clearly more we need to do’, while noting that there was ‘worrying rise’ of material hosted in Europe.

Offenders were ‘exploit(ing) new vulnerabilities in the online environment to evade detection’, she said. ‘We will continue to work together in our efforts to rise to this challenge and to evolve with it as we look to ensure the UK’s response remains as strong as it can possibly be,’ she added.

Her comments came as IWF’s research found that 65 per cent of child sex abuse imagery was being produced in Europe - with the Netherlands as the top host.

Mr Langford, IWF’s deputy chief, said abusers were ‘goading’ each other on through the web to post more graphic content with more extreme images granting greater ‘kudos’.

‘In the same was as I suppose an international drug deal might say I’m shipping more drugs than you...These people have got that same sort of mentality…It becomes: “I’ve got more extreme content that you”,’ he told the Mail.

Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of the Cambridge-based charity, said: ‘This year we’re seeing offenders getting smarter and finding new ways to abuse legitimate internet services.’ She said it was ‘concerning’ that more disguised websites were being used to evade the authorities.

‘We are making huge technological advances, which we’ll be announcing later in the year, but we also need to continue to work globally, in partnership, to fight this disturbing crime. This battle cannot be won in isolation,’ she added.