Illegal image sites evade closure

IWF calls for greater international cooperation to combat online child abuse

The Internet Watch Foundation has called for a more unified global effort to clamp down on websites that contain abusive images of children, after new research found that some of these sites hosted abroad have remained accessible for up to five years despite being reported to the authorities.

Website Longevity Statistics in the IWF's Half Yearly Report show that a fifth of all sites hosting child abuse content on the organisation's database were accessible at the start and end of a six week period.

"We have great links with the industry in the UK so when [such sites] are found they are taken down within 48 hours and the publishers are investigated immediately, but around the world this is not the case," explained the IWF's Sarah Robertson. "The US has slightly different law enforcement policies and in Russia there is no hotline [to report websites], and the speed with which these things are dealt with [is slower]."

One such site has been reported to the IWF 96 times since 1999, but continually escapes investigation because it hops between being hosted in the US and Russia, she added.

"This is behind our call for a more global approach to the problem – no-one is taking ownership of these sites," said Robertson.

The IWF's Wipe It Out Campaign was set up to encourage IT professionals to report any incidents of staff downloading or distributing illegal images or accidentally viewing images, she added.

It highlights a memorandum of understanding in law which makes it legal for IT staff to view, download and save potentially illegal images as evidence, in order to report them to the police or IWF.