Hold on, Hold out

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Location
There is general international consensus regarding the definition of child sexual abuse material and we work in partnership with INHOPE, the International Association of Internet Hotlines, and with 35 Hotlines around the world to combat the distribution of these images and videos. This means that details of child sexual abuse content hosted outside the UK can be passed immediately to the Hotline in the country whose hosting services appear to have been abused, so the website can be investigated by the relevant national authorities within their own judicial procedures. Where no authorised Hotline exists we pass details of child sexual abuse websites to the law enforcement agency in that country via our law enforcement partner agency the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre.

 

Those countries whose internet services are exploited for the distribution of child sexual abuse content are often those with advanced technological infrastructures; whose internet services are of a high standard; and who offer a range of flexible hosting services. Figure 3 portrays the distribution of child sexual abuse URLs known to the IWF during 2009 around the continents of the world.

 

The dynamic nature of child sexual abuse content on the internet means some websites move hosting provider and hosting country regularly to avoid detection and removal. This produces a volatile geographical representation.

Figure 3: Confirmed child sexual abuse reports by location (continent) of hosting provider

 

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