Commercial content

 

We define commercial child sexual abuse imagery as images or videos that were seemingly produced or being used for the purposes of financial gain by the distributor.

Of the 275,658 webpages we confirmed as containing child sexual abuse imagery in 2023, 8,076 (3%) were commercial in nature. This is less than last year, when we took action against 28,933 (11%) commercial webpages. This decrease is a result of commercial child sexual abuse website owners no longer externally storing vast numbers of the images displayed on their sites – usually in separate image stores. This had meant that we previously had to action for removal each commercial image twice: once on the primary host site, and once within the image store.

Also see the section Unique domain frequency trends which provided some analysis of commercial vs non-commercial sites by domain, rather than URL.

Of the commercial sites we actioned in 2023, we identified a number of different payment methods being offered.

Abuse of payment types for child sexual abuse imagery

  • In 2023 we actioned 2,809 reports where commercial sites were offering a payment option.
  • Across all 2,809 reports we found 845 instances where cryptocurrencies were offered as a type of payment. These were attributed to 332 unique URLs.

Unfortunately, due to restrictions on some sites, not all payment methods were visible.

What can we do about it?

We monitor and research any new trends we have observed. Sharing this intelligence with our sister hotlines and law enforcement agencies means that websites can be removed and distributors can be investigated.

Any payment information displayed on these commercial websites – including cryptocurrency details – is captured and shared with our partners in the financial industry. This helps to prevent misuse of their services and disrupt further distribution of the criminal imagery.