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The age profile of children depicted has remained largely consistent, with the 11–13 age group accounting for the highest proportion, followed by 7–10 year–olds. However, we are seeing an increase in reports involving 14–15 year–olds, which we believe is linked to a rise in the number of children using the Report Remove service.
More insights into Report Remove in 2025 are available in our Report Remove section.
We see children of all ages in the child sexual abuse imagery (CSAM) that we grade and find online; from babies a just few months old up to older teenagers. There are instances where we see a child appearing in CSAM throughout their childhood; we see them as young children, all the way through to later stages of puberty.
Some child sexual abuse images present us with a challenge in terms of aging the children within them. The bodily development of some older teenage children is almost adult-like, and when we see cropped or zoomed-in images of them, it can be difficult to confidently grade them as children.
Images of older teens can sometimes reach us in large sets found by our analysts, or as part of a workstream sourced from CAID (the UK’s Child Abuse Image Database). Victim intelligence from CAID is extremely helpful in helping us accurately grade CSAM of older teenagers, and means our hashes are reliable, and informed by police intelligence.