The Internet Watch Foundation said it removed millions of pictures and videos last year.
Record numbers of reports of online child abuse were investigated by a UK charity last year.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which identifies and removes child abuse content on the internet, processed 260,400 reports in 2019, up 14% on the previous year’s numbers.
Of these reports, 132,700 were found to show images of child sexual abuse. This is up from 105,047 in 2018 – an increase of 26%.
The charity said this figures represents millions of individual images and videos, as each report can contain thousands of individual items.
Susan Hargreaves, IWF CEO, said the figures showed the “shocking” availability of child abuse images available on the open internet.
“What’s really shocking is that it’s all available on the open internet, or ‘clear web’,” she said.
“That’s the everyday internet that we all use to do our shopping, search for information, and obtain our news. Obviously, we know there’s child sexual abuse content on the dark web but right now it’s really a case of saying ‘we’ve got to get a grip on the epidemic on our open internet’.
“As the (UK) Government considers new regulatory legislation on online harms, this presents a real opportunity to do just that. These figures show the crucial role the IWF plays as a vital avenue for the public to report online child sexual abuse material.
“Child sexual abuse is a horrific topic for people to talk about, but as a society we have got to take on board a heavy dose of reality and face up to what’s right in front of us.”
IWF’s hotline manager, identified as “Chris”, said there were a number of factors behind the increase in reports last year, including better staff awareness and expertise.
“We look at every report which comes into our hotline, but not every report leads to child sexual abuse content,” he said.
“Whilst we actively encourage people to report to us content within our remit because it helps us do a good job, actually, far too many people are wasting our time. Our analysts have to look at everything they’re sent. So, our message is, yes please report to us, but please, please stop reporting material outside our remit.”
Ms Hargreaves said the charity was now investing in technology and staff to allow them to tackle more cases.
She added: “It might seem like a needle in a haystack, but every single image is of a real child. As long as there’s one child’s image out there, we will never stop removing this content.
“Thanks to our analysts, millions of images that would otherwise still be online are eradicated from the internet.”
