Third of child abuse images are now SELFIES as number of illegal pics skyrockets by 37%

ROUGHLY one in three images of child abuse are selfies that were taken by the victims themselves.

That's according to the Internet Watch Foundation, which published a damning report revealing how the number of child abuse websites online has grown by 37% since 2016.

The IWF's annual report showed that the number of confirmed child sexual abuse URLs (or web pages) numbered 78,589 in 2017.

That's a huge leap upwards from the 57,335 pages tracked in 2016.

Worryingly, "Category A content", which includes the rape and sexual torture of children, is up 5%. That means 33% of child abuse images are now classified at the most extreme level.

And "self-generated content" (like sexting and sexual selfies) now accounts for a third of child abuse images.

Speaking about the report, IWF boss Susie Hargreaves OBE said: “The child victims of sexual abuse online are revictimised again and again, every time their picture is shared.

"The experience they go through at such a young age is unimaginably horrific, and they frequently take this pain into adulthood with them.

"That’s why at the IWF we fight every day to make sure these images and videos are removed from the internet, so that victims are no longer forced to live with the torment of others seeing the images of their abuse online."

The report also revealed that Europe has become a hotbed for child abuse.

According to the IWF, Europe now accounts for 65% of "all child sexual abuse imagery" seen by the foundation.

The top hosting countries for child abuse URLs are the Netherlands, USA, Canada, France and Russia.

In a statement given to The Sun, an NSPCC spokesperson said: “It’s clear that paedophiles are using increasingly sophisticated ways to offend at a mass scale. The use of disguised websites and the dark web are fuelling the growth of this terrible crime.

“The sheer scale and complexity of the problem is evolving rapidly in line with technology, so it’s impossible to simply police our way out of the problem, we need a comprehensive strategy to stop potential offenders in their tracks.

“We know a lot of child sexual abuse imagery is created after a predator has groomed their victims and to tackle the growth of this material we need to cut it off at the source.

"Social networks must ensure that they prioritise child protection and we need the Culture Secretary, Matt Hancock, to step in and end the Wild West of the Web.”

• If any of the issues mentioned in this article affect you or someone you know, please contact the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000 or fill in the charity's . If you're worried that a child is in immediate danger, please call the police on 999.

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