The future we want for the internet? Child sexual abuse, offenders, and the apps they use to avoid detection. New research shows online offenders are choosing end-to-end encrypted messaging apps to contact children and to spread child sexual abuse material amid renewed calls for Meta to rethink its planned roll out of end-to-end encryption on Facebook Messsenger. This new episode from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) focuses on new research from Finnish child protection agency ...

The increase in self-generated child sexual abuse content is alarming. In 2022, more than three quarters (78%) of the webpages IWF identified as containing child sexual abuse material were tech-enabled, ie created via smartphones or webcams without the offender being physically present in the room with the child. As we release the Talk Trust Empower report, this episode delves into how children – many of them of primary school age – are groomed and extorted into producing self-generated image...

In Conversation With Thorn’s Head of Data Science Rebecca Portnoff and IWF Chief Technology Officer Dan Sexton. This episode explores what needs to be done to try and control the explosion in harmful AI-generated child abuse imagery and how other AI or machine-learning tools could be used to counter the phenomenon. Support the show

As the Online Safety Bill becomes the Online Safety Act, the Internet Watch Foundation looks at what is next. In this podcast, children’s online safety expert Natalia Greene and IWF Head of Policy and Public Affairs Mike Tunks explain this landmark piece of legislation and the effect it may have on all our lives. Support the show

Nowhere to Hide is part of the IWF’s In Conversation With series exploring the technological and political issues surrounding the global spread of child sexual abuse material. This episode looks at how end-to-end encryption goes further than standard encryption, meaning even the service providers themselves can’t see what has been shared between two users. It means that service providers who deploy end-to-end encryption on their platforms and messaging services are actively disablin...

Our analysts in the Hotline have discovered a disturbing new trend, what they’ve called iCAP sites or “invite child abuse pyramid” sites. These sites encourage users to share links to criminal child sexual abuse material, spamming social media platforms with them and increasing the risk of accidental exposure to this content by the public. Our Hotline Manager Tamsin McNally shares more details about this trend and warns people to not click on links coming from unknown sources. Tamsin McNally...

Protecting children is at the heart of everything we do. Our team of expert analysts do one of the most difficult, yet crucial, jobs in the world - searching for and seeking the removal of online child sexual abuse imagery. It’s a tough job. Our Analysts are amongst the best in the world. The children in the pictures are real. Their abuse and suffering is very real. Our experts never forget that. We talk to our Analysts Emilia, Mabel and Peter about their everyday work and the impact it has i...

New data released by the IWF today shows that almost 20,000 webpages identified by our team in the first half of 2022 included 'self-generated' child sexual abuse imagery of 7-to-10-year-old children - a 360% increase on the first half of 2020 when the UK entered its first Covid lockdown. The rapid growth of this material, showing primary-aged children, is a social and digital emergency, which needs a focussed and sustained effort to combat it from the Government, tech industry, law enf...

“The introduction of end-to-end encryption technologies has led to a debate around the apparent dichotomy of good child safety and good general user privacy and security,” reads a new report by Dr Ian Levy and Crispin Robinson, respectively the technical heads of the UK’s National Cybersecurity Centre and GCHQ. The report made headlines last week after suggesting tech companies should move ahead with technology that scans for child abuse imagery essentially on users’ phones themselves. Speaki...