British Overseas Territories Host more than 1,000 Child Sex Abuse Websites

British overseas territories host more than 1,000 child sex abuse websites despite a Government crack down on exploitation

By Harvey Day For Mailonline

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) found 13 child abuse websites with 1,488 web pages on the .io domain for the British Indian Ocean Territory in 2016.

This revelation is embarrassing for the UK government which has spent £50 million advising other countries on how to tackle child abuse. 

British overseas territories are hosting more than 1,000 child sex abuse websites.

Pictured, Diego Garcia beach in the British Indian Ocean Territory

The IWF also found its first case of sexual abuse images on the .sh domain for St Helena, according to The Sunday Times. 

The British Indian Ocean Territory is a collection of islands in the Indian Ocean overseen by the UK.

The largest island is Diego Garcia, the site of a joint military base used by the United Kingdom and the United States.

Web addresses, or domains, for these British territories are sold by the Internet Computer Bureau (ICB).

The ICB, owned by Paul and Fiona Kane, say they make no profit from the .io domain and that anyone registering a website has agreed not to use it for illegal purposes.

There is no suggestion the Kanes or the ICB have done anything wrong.

An ICB spokesman told MailOnline: 'ICB treats complaints and potential breaches with the utmost seriousness, and enforces its robust policies for removing offending content and domain names, regularly taking enforcement actions when complaints are made with Law Enforcement Agencies.' 

Last year the .io domain accounted for almost 3 per cent of all child abuse web pages detected by IWF, the Sunday Times reported. 

Almost all of the criminal imagery accessed through the .io domain was held in the Netherlands. 

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office told MailOnline: 'The British Government has a zero tolerance approach to child abuse and child pornography and is committed to stamping out these horrific crimes.

'We are urgently looking into this and will take action as needed with the relevant authorities.'

According to the IWF: 'Criminals are increasingly using masking techniques to hide child sexual abuse images and videos on the internet and leaving clues to paedophiles so they can find it – hidden behind legal content.'

Susie Hargreaves OBE, IWF CEO, added: 'Whilst it's positive that the UK continues to remain hostile to child sexual abuse material, the global picture isn't good.' 

The British Indian Ocean Territory is a collection of islands in the Indian Ocean overseen by the UK. Pictured, Diego Garcia military base

'We've opened reporting portals across the globe with more planned.' 

'In other countries, internet companies are exploited and, worst of all, children who have been sexually abused are further exploited.'

'Internet companies and large businesses who are doing nothing, or too little, to address online child sexual abuse imagery need to step up and work with us.'

In June 2016, dedicated web portals to allow people to report images and videos of child sexual abuse were launched in 12 British overseas territories.

A team of IWF analyst were working directly with the internet industry and law enforcement to have abusive imagery removed.

British overseas territories include:

Anguilla.

Bermuda.

British Antarctic Territory.

British Indian Ocean Territory.

British Virgin Islands.

Cayman Islands.

Falkland Islands.

Gibraltar.

Diego Garcia, BIOT