Criminals and paedophiles are trying to groom and exploit young siblings as part of an emerging trend of online sexual abuse, experts have warned.
Predators are often early adopters of technology,” says Sarah Smith, chief technology officer at the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a UK child abuse hotline. “It’s an arms race, we have to be constantly horizon-scanning.”
With cuddly toys scattered around her, schoolgirl Becky fixes her eyes on the screen in front of her as she's directed to perform a series of sickening sexual acts by vile paedophiles.
Isobel has been working throughout lockdown. With her colleagues in the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) analyst room in Cambridge she has been responding to a rising number of tipoffs from the public that child abuse images are circulating online. The work is gruelling.
Analysts are finding 15 times as much child sexual abuse material on the internet as they were 10 years ago, leaving them battling a "tidal wave of criminal material".
Children aged seven to 10 should be supervised while using the internet amid an “incredibly worrying” rise in sexual abuse material depicting children of those ages, internet safety experts have warned.
Tech Monitor spoke to the IWF’s chief technology officer Dan Sexton about how his team is developing bespoke software to support the charity’s work.
Call for lawmakers to act quickly as new data shows child sexual abuse reports are soaring in wake of pandemic.
IWF analysts have seen accelerating numbers of public reports of child sexual abuse, with more people staying and working from home among contributing factors.