UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
David Batty
Tue 17 Apr 2018 1
There has been a sharp rise in paedophiles and organised criminals hiding child abuse images on apparently legal commercial adult pornography websites, the Internet Watch Foundation has warned.
In the past year the number of such disguised websites, which provide a secret route to child sexual abuse content, had risen by 86%, said Fred Langford, the chief executive of the UK charity. The IWF uncovered 2,909 such websites in 2017, compared with 1,572 in 2016.
Langford said the technique of hiding illegal content, which involves using a shortened URL that directs the user through a back door to child abuse images and videos, has become increasingly popular with criminals because some international police forces and internet watchdogs still did not know how to identify such sites or take them down.
“The content is remaining live for longer, which is driving their popularity,” he said.
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