Internet Watch Foundation hotline: a disturbing new trend

In June 2022, the IWF Hotline first started receiving reports from people who had been inadvertently exposed to images or videos of child sexual abuse after clicking on a link found while browsing the internet.

Since then, the number of reports relating to this trend has skyrocketed. As of August 2023, the IWF has received more than 9,000 reports from distressed members of the public, upset about what they had seen and worried that they had broken the law.

These links are indiscriminately scattered about on the internet, deliberately aiming to get as many people as possible to visit, what IWF Hotline analysts are now calling, ICAP, or invite child abuse pyramid websites.

What are child abuse pyramid websites?

These are websites that host child sexual abuse material, sometimes along with images and videos of adult pornography.

The criminals running ICAP sites encourage users to share or spam links to their sites far and wide on the internet in a scattergun approach, which land up on a variety of places like social media platforms and forum discussion groups, as well as anywhere else that an internet user can leave a comment.

We believe it could be likened to a pyramid scheme, as the illegal websites provide users with the links and then incentivise them via a “points system” to share the link widely.

The more people who click through, the more points are earned which allows the original user to access more videos of child sexual abuse for free. The sites even have a ‘tier system’ which offer different levels of access to the material.

When people unsuspectingly click on the links, the pyramid sites benefit from increased web traffic and the resulting additional income, with offenders potentially buying further images or videos of child sexual abuse by messaging the seller via an encrypted platform.

The links are very ‘clickbaity’ and designed to encourage people to click on them and find out more, with misleading headlines such as of ‘leaked’ adult videos, deliberately targeting people who may want to view legitimate pornography.

Child sexual abuse material is not ‘just on the dark web’

These child sexual abuse pyramid sites seem to be a new method of profiting from child sexual abuse material, and members of the public are saying these links are routinely being spammed all over the internet. This is of great concern, as it escalates the chance of people being accidently exposed to this awful material.

It highlights how this sort of material is not hidden away on the dark web, and could be easily accessed by anyone, including children.

Most people who see this imagery are understandably very upset and the best thing for them to do is to report the URL (web address link) where they found the material to the IWF straight away.

Reporting is quick, easy and anonymous and it can lead to the removal of criminal content.

If people simply stumbled across these images, then they should have nothing to worry about from the law. Any images or URLs should be deleted from devices as soon as they are reported.

What happens to the public’s reports?

The IWF is responsible for finding and removing images and videos of child sexual abuse from the internet, and since first identifying these sites in June last year, our Hotline has investigated 9,278 reports, leading analysts to take action on 1,116 webpages containing confirmed imagery of child sexual abuse.

Many of the original reports are duplicate, given that the links are spammed indiscriminately over the internet, which means that multiple people do report the same link. The analysts then get those webpages taken down as swiftly as possible.

We notify the appropriate companies when this and any other type of child sexual abuse material distribution is encountered to ensure that the illegal webpages are blocked and removed from the internet.

What can be done?

We are concerned about this alarming trend that has continued apace since first discovered, as more web pages are reported every day, with more and more people seemingly exposed to them.

The IWF is also working closely with partner hotlines, sharing information and tactics on how best to tackle these child sexual abuse pyramid sites and get them removed.

We want to warn all internet users not to click on unknown or suspicious links as it greatly increases the risk that they may accidentally see this criminal material online.

Many people who click on the links would be seeing child sexual abuse for the first time and find it very distressing.

It’s also very important to talk freely to younger people about the possible risks they may encounter on the internet and encourage them to report anything illegal that they might find.

Children are naturally curious, and the fact that so many of these pyramid site links have been shared on popular social networks as well as on gaming forum discussion sites, means that the risk of them being accidentally exposed to this disturbing material is high.

Parents and educators can follow the to help children be more aware of the risks online and discuss with them about what they would do if they found this sort of material on the internet. Just one conversation could make all the difference.