"I can find child sexual abuse content, the worst categories, category A content, which is penetration of children as young as babies on any social media platform in as little as one search term and two clicks. I think the public have this perception that this sort of material is hidden away in dark and dirty corners of the internet, but it's not, it's in plain sight."
"It is clear criminals are exploiting systemic failures and are finding it far too easy to reap huge profits from children's sexual exploitation. We need mandatory measures on financial services to proactively detect, take down and report digital payment links for the sale of images and videos of child sexual abuse."
"The amount of child sexual abuse sites where users were directly paying for content has increased from 2% in 2024 to 5% in 2025. The cost could start from $12 up to $120 for the most extreme content."
In 2025, the Internet Watch Foundation reported 15,031 commercial child sexual abuse websites, a 114% increase from 2024's 7,028 sites. This content is prevalent across social media platforms and easily accessible. An analyst noted that severe categories of abuse can be found with minimal effort. Kerry Smith, IWF's chief executive, emphasized the need for mandatory measures on financial services to combat this issue. The report also indicated that the percentage of sites where users pay for content rose from 2% to 5%, with some sites disguising illegal content as legal.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]