The severity of online child abuse content is on the rise, according to the 2006 Annual Report of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), released yesterday. This report provides a shocking look at the nature of online child abuse images, including the IWF's findings of a "four-fold rise in images depicting the most severe abuse, such as penetrative and sadistic sexual activity".
In addition to the deplorable trends regarding the severity of online child abuse, it is noted that 80% of the children in abusive images are female, and 91% appear to be less than 12 years old.
The increasing demand for more severe images, as described in this report, is illustrated by the fact that nearly 60 per cent of the commercial child abuse sites were found to be selling images of child rape. Read the report here.
Let's not make this "our little secret". This should be a call to action for all of us.
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