The Netherlands hosted a third of all sites that were reported to the Internet Watch Foundation for online child sexual abuse images and videos in 2022, according to an annual report by the UK-based NGO and watchdog. This was followed by the United States at 15 percent of the world total and the Slovak Republic with 12 percent.
According to the report, almost three in every five (59 percent) child sexual abuse reports were traced to hosting services in EU Member states in 2022. Some of these sites move their hosting from country to country to avoid removal.
While the Netherlands and the U.S. both saw high numbers of reports last year, both countries saw a decrease in the proportion of child sexual abuse URLs being hosted there from 2021 (from 41 percent in 2021 to 32 percent in 2022 in the Netherlands and from 21 percent in 2021 to 15 percent in 2022 in the U.S.).
After assessing whether an image or video fails UK law, the IWF traces the URL to the physical server location that the content is hosted on. They are then able to reach out and collaborate with other NGOs, governments and police services in that country, as well as international organizations such as Europol and Interpol, to remove the content. IWF says that once the content has been removed from the physical server, then it is also removed from sites that link to it.
