Fighting child porn: Update

Some 30,000 Web sites containing child pornography have been taken down in the past 10 years, Britain's Internet Watch Foundation announced, citing a study marking its 10th anniversary. "Although the number of UK websites providing such content has fallen [from 18% to 2%], the severity of the images has significantly increased in the last 12 months," the BBC reports. IWF chief executive Peter Robbins "blames this on pay-per-view sites that use sophisticated means to avoid detection." In a thorough update on anti-child-porn efforts, USATODAY summarizes the significant law-enforcement work going on while reporting that all these efforts on the part of credit card companies, Internet service providers, the Ad Council, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) can't keep up. "In the past 24 months … the task forces have identified 6.5 million pornographic pictures of children online, up from 3,600 three years ago. Forty percent originated in the USA," USATODAY reports. A key reason for this flood of illegal content, it adds is that "much child porn isn't about money but pedophilia…. Many images are traded free like baseball cards." In releasing its CyberTipline reporting figures, the NCMEC said few of the report come from the victims. "Of more than 800 online child porn victims identified by the National Center, [Michelle] Collins [who runs the Tipline] says only about 30 blew the whistle. She says some are too young to describe what happened. Others are afraid. More than a third, 36%, were abused by a parent, 10% to 15% by another relative and 30% by other people they know. About 10% are enticed by strangers to post photos [such as in the case of Justin Berry – see "Kids & Webcams"]; 5% do it unasked."