US spawns half of child abuse content

Half of all child abuse content online comes from the US, according to the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) on Thursday.

The IWF said it found nearly 2,500 American sites containing illegal images and that it received a total of 14,313 reports of potentially illegal content during the first six months of 2006. The figure is a record according to the organisation which said that of the total, 4,908 reports lead to the discovery of illegal content.

Of concern to ISPs will be the revelation that although some sites being reported to authorities, they still contained illegal material up to five years after the reports were made. However, earlier this year the US launched a task force to assess and propose a remedy for the situation, including a possible change in law.

Read why one senior analyst believes the mobile industry is being slow to address parental concerns.