Action urged on web child abuse

Date : 15:46:33 17.04.2008
Posted by: George Nicolaou

Child abuse websites could be eradicated by a co-ordinated international campaign, a leading internet watchdog has claimed.


There are now fewer than 3,000 child abuse sites worldwide according to the UK charity the Internet Watch Foundation.


From the IWF's analysis the number of child abuse domains on the web dropped from 3,052 in 2006 to 2,755 last year.


A spokesperson for the IWF said that a co-ordinated effort from inter-government agencies as well as net firms has meant that fewer than one per cent of child abuse sites are hosted in Britain.


Many of the sites are hosted in the US and Russia, and the IWF called for a new international effort to disrupt and remove websites - particularly those which hop between servers and countries.


The organisation received 34,871 reports from the public about suspected child abuse sites last year, up 10 per cent on the previous 12 months, which the organisation said was partly down to increased awareness of its hotline.


Elsewhere new research released by security firm ScanSafe reveals that employees who use remote servers - for example while on the road - are two and half times more likely to visit pornography sites than their office-bound colleagues, sometimes putting themselves at the risk of legal liability and web viruses.

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