RECORD numbers of child sexual abuse images are being found online, a sickening report has found.
By REBECCA FLOODThe report found more than 900 sick images a day online
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is finding 200 web pages with child sex abuse images on every day, many being hidden in the dark web.
There are also soaring numbers of reports of criminal images popping up on the web, with 68,092 URLs rooted out and removed from the internet last year alone, a rise of 118 per cent since 2014.
In one single day, in October, a record breaking 941 web pages were found to have the banned images on them.
In total, a third of all the images contained scenes of rape and sexual torture of children, and nearly a quarter of the images were class as “commercial”.
Writing in the report, Prime Minister David Cameron said: "This has been a hugely important year for those at the front of our global efforts against the crime of the taking and sharing of images depicting the sexual abuse of children."
The IWF said that the unprecedented rise came after a shift in 2014 which allowed its analytics to proactively search for abuse images, alongside receiving reports from members of the public
Nearly 70,000 URLs were shut down last year
Compared with 2013, the number of pages confirmed as containing illegal images or videos jumped 417 per cent.
We've seen a dramatic increase in the sheer number
of illegal images and videos that we've been
able to remove from the internet
Susie Hargreaves
Susie Hargreaves, chief executive of the IWF, said: "Last year our analysts broke all records for assessing reports.
"By being allowed to actively search for these hideous images of children, we've seen a dramatic increase in the sheer number of illegal images and videos that we've been able to remove from the internet."
Out of the global pages just 0.2 per cent were UK hosts, with action taken on 135 web pages.
David Cameron said it was an important year in tackling images of sexual abuse of children. Getty
And for the first time last year, experts discovered “hidden services” in the dark web which regularly changed web addresses.
A report into the practice said: "Child sexual abuse websites on the open web regularly do this to try to stop being found.
"But this was the first time we'd seen it routinely done by hidden services."
New technology is also underway to create a database logging duplicate images by giving each a unique code.
Ms Hargreaves added: "Most images have been shared online for years and there are often thousands of duplicates of individual images on the internet.
One day saw 941 web pages found with sick images Getty
"Until recently, this meant that most victims had to live with the knowledge that those images will be shared again and again."
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