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URL analysis
You can find out about the UK hosting situation here.
When we see child sexual abuse online, our aim is to get it removed from the internet as quickly as possible. To do this, we perform a trace on the URL to identify the location of the physical server that is hosting the content. This tells us which partners we need to work with, and in which country. When the content is removed from the physical server - its source - then we can be sure that the image has been removed from any sites - like blogs, forums or image hosts - that could be linking to it.
*‘.onion’ domains enable anonymous hosting and cannot be attributed to any specific hosting country. Their numbers are provided for transparency.
Please note that this map is not to scale and has been used for illustrative purposes only.
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Please note that this map is not to scale and has been used for illustrative purposes only.
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| Host country | Number of reports | % of total number of reports | % last year | % point change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | 83,037 | 29% | 33% | -4% |
| United States | 41,110 | 14% | 15% | -1% |
| Bulgaria | 25,180 | 9% | 6% | +3% |
| Hong Kong | 24,063 | 8% | 9% | -1% |
| Romania | 21,528 | 7% | 0% | +7% |
| Malaysia | 15,902 | 5% | 2% | +3% |
| Lithuania | 8,484 | 3% | 0% | +3% |
| Poland | 8,077 | 3% | 0% | +3% |
| Czech Republic | 7,859 | 3% | 0% | +3% |
| Latvia | 7,540 | 3% | 0% | +3% |
| Top ten total | 242,780 | 83% | 66% | +17% |
| Moldova | 7,513 | 3% | 0% | +3% |
| Ukraine | 7,223 | 2% | 2% | 0% |
| Russian Federation | 6,487 | 2% | 2% | 0% |
| Austria | 6,144 | 2% | 0% | +2% |
| Germany | 4,448 | 2% | 5% | -3% |
| Slovak Republic | 3,422 | 1% | 4% | -3% |
| Panama | 2,095 | 1% | 2% | -1% |
| France | 2,091 | 1% | 1% | 0% |
| Sweden | 1,552 | 1% | 1% | 0% |
| Switzerland | 1,117 | 0% | 8% | -8% |
| Finland | 1,027 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| United Kingdom | 987 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| .onion URL (Dark web) | 531 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Azerbaijan | 496 | 0% | 1% | -1% |
| Luxembourg | 486 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Vietnam | 461 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Japan | 385 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Singapore | 328 | 0% | 3% | -3% |
| Indonesia | 235 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Korea (South) | 137 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| United Arab Emirates | 91 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| India | 80 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Norway | 80 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Italy | 70 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Canada | 69 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Estonia | 65 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Spain | 36 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Belgium | 30 | 0% | - | 0% |
| Brazil | 29 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Hungary | 27 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Turkey | 26 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Australia | 15 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Mauritius | 13 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| China | 12 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Belarus | 11 | 0% | - | 0% |
| South Africa | 6 | 0% | 4 | -4% |
| Peru | 5 | 0% | - | 0% |
| Albania | 3 | 0% | - | 0% |
| Denmark | 3 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Kazakhstan | 3 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Portugal | 3 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Banglades | 2 | 0% | - | 0% |
| Cyprus | 2 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Iceland | 2 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Seychelles | 2 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Taiwan | 2 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Bosnia-Herzegovina | 1 | 0% | - | 0% |
| Costa Rica | 1 | 0% | - | 0% |
| Ireland | 1 | 0% | - | 0% |
| Mexico | 1 | 0% | - | 0% |
| Montenegro | 1 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Vanuatu | 1 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Anguilla | - | - | 0% | 0% |
| Cambodia | - | - | 0% | 0% |
| Georgia | - | - | 0% | 0% |
| Iran | - | - | 0% | 0% |
| Israel | - | - | 0% | 0% |
| Thailand | - | - | 0% | 0% |
| Overall total | 290,638 | 100% | 100% | 0% |
We have added +/- to reflect the movement in percentage point terms (increase or decrease) on the previous year’s figures.
In 2024 we saw no notable change in the proportion of child sexual abuse URLs being hosted in the Netherlands, with the percentage down from 33% of the global total in 2023, to 29% of the global total in 2024 (91,572 URLs to 83,037 URLs respectively). The proportion of child sexual abuse URLs hosted in the US dropped slightly from 15% in 2023 to 14% in 2024 (41,502 URLs in 2023 and 41,110 URLs in 2024).
Some criminal child sexual abuse sites, especially those created specifically to share imagery for commercial gain, are dynamic and deliberately move their hosting from country to country to avoid removal. We continue to track and count these sites when they change location and seek to take them offline wherever they go.
More than half 181,112 (62%) of child sexual abuse URLs that we have actioned this year were traced to hosting services in EU Member states.
The table of countries below shows where the servers responsible for hosting the criminal webpages were physically located, at the point when we actioned the criminal content.
| Host country | Number of reports | % of total number of reports | Last year | % last year | % point change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | 83,037 | 29% | 91,572 | 33% | -5% |
| Bulgaria | 25,180 | 9% | 17,536 | 6% | +2% |
| Romania | 21,528 | 7% | 852 | 0% | +7% |
| Lithuania | 8,484 | 3% | 534 | 0% | +3% |
| Poland | 8,077 | 3% | 94 | 0% | +3% |
| Czech Republic | 7,859 | 3% | 105 | 0% | +3% |
| Latvia | 7,540 | 3% | 68 | 0% | +3% |
| Austria | 6,144 | 2% | 63 | 0% | +2% |
| Germany | 4,448 | 2% | 12,984 | 5% | -3% |
| Slovak Republic | 3,422 | 1% | 11,558 | 4% | -3% |
| France | 2,091 | 1% | 2,947 | 1% | 0% |
| Sweden | 1,552 | 1% | 1,660 | 1% | 0% |
| Finland | 1,027 | 0% | 101 | 0% | +0% |
| Luxembourg | 486 | 0% | 626 | 0% | 0% |
| Italy | 70 | 0% | 7 | 0% | +0% |
| Estonia | 65 | 0% | 171 | 0% | 0% |
| Spain | 36 | 0% | 5 | 0% | +0% |
| Belgium | 30 | 0% | 4 | - | +0% |
| Hungary | 27 | 0% | 8 | 0% | +0% |
| Denmark | 3 | 0% | 2 | 0% | 0% |
| Portugal | 3 | 0% | 13 | 0% | 0% |
| Total | 181,112 | 62% | 140,911 | 51% | +11% |
We have added +/- to reflect the movement in percentage point terms (increase or decrease) on the previous year’s figures.
We are committed to playing our part globally in the removal of online child sexual abuse imagery.
We constantly innovate to achieve this. We’ve set up 53 Reporting Portals around the world as part of our work in partnership with the Global Fund to End Violence Against Children. This has enabled us to develop vital links with other NGOs, governments and police services globally to remove this content.
In the EU we work closely with Europol and Interpol and the Lanzarote Committee of the Council of Europe. Europol have produced a number of threat assessments which have referenced many similar trends we have identified including a rise in 'self-generated' content.
As a key organisation within the INHOPE network (International Association of Internet Hotlines), we work closely with all other INHOPE hotlines around the world to ensure that we alert our partners when we find child sexual abuse content hosted in their country. The IWF Reporting Portals are included under the INHOPE umbrella.
Additionally, we “chase up” our partners if this criminal imagery is not removed quickly.