Geographical hosting: domains

Unique domains by hosting country

This is the fourth year in which we have published our findings covering the volume of individual URLs actioned on each domain, in addition to the number of unique domains identified as carrying child sexual abuse material. Where possible, we have tried to remain consistent in how the reports are compiled and the nature of analysis provided. In particular we hope that our consistency in reporting on specific topics over a number of years provides data that is comparable over time, which in turn enhances the opportunity for longer term trend and impact analysis to be considered.

Our extended analysis covers distribution across classification groups including host country, abused top-level domains (TLDs), commerciality and content recidivism following takedown and suspension actions.

Websites hosting high volumes of child sexual abuse material in a particular country can quickly propel the hosting country into our top 10 listings when we analyse the volume of URLs showing child sexual abuse over the course of a year, even based on just one or two domains with a large number of URLs.  While volume in this respect is important to capture, the number of unique websites hosting child sexual abuse imagery in each country can provide a very different indication of the nature of the problem in that country. E.g. a single website can be responsible for the creation of tens of thousands of reports, which may imply that there is a widespread or endemic issue with child sexual abuse material, when in fact it may be limited to one or two websites as opposed to a country hosting high numbers of unique sites showing this criminal material.

For clarity, the diagram below sets out the domain naming conventions used throughout this report.