The Internet Watch Foundation, the UK-based body whose main role is as a hotline for reporting child pornography in the UK, this week released their 2007 Annual Report that includes information on the scale of publicly available child abuse websites known to the IWF. The IWF said whilst it is very rare to trace these websites to the UK, the IWF has identified a core of 2755 websites hosted abroad during 2007; this total number has remained relatively static for three years and represents a concrete target which can be tackled through international partnerships.

As part of its report, the IWF made a number of recommendations on how to deal with this problem, one of which was an international effort by domain name registries and relevant authorities to de-register domains associated with child sexual abuse.

Other recommendations were:

• a worldwide public/private partnership to investigate, disrupt and remove websites that hop server and region and identification of the distributors of this content
• increased sharing of good practice between INHOPE Hotlines and industry to remove content quickly to ensure the longevity of these websites is diminished
• wider adoption of an initiative to protect internet users by blocking access to child sexual abuse websites.

The IWF news release, with links to the report, is available from iwf.org.uk/media/news.229.htm.