47 Hotlines
43 Countries
1 Mission

Facts & numbers

Age of the victims

90 % of CSAM assessed in 2018 depicted children under 13 years of age.

Victims aged between 3 to 13 years has increased.

The proportion of assessed reports depicting female victims has declined since 2017. However, girls still represent the majority of victims depicted in CSAM. In the first half of 2019, already over 90% of victims have been registered as pre-pubescent.

Gender of victims

80% of victims depicted in reports assessed during 2018 were girls and 17% were boys.

80% of victims were girls

From 2017 to 2018 the proportion of victims that were girls reduced from 94,2% to 80,5% while the number of victims that were boys increased from 4,3% to 16,8 %. The proportion including both genders rose from 1,4% to 2,7%. In the first half of 2019 we see that over 90% of victims depicted in CSAM are girls.

World Wide Hosting Patterns

In 2018, 44,33% of CSAM was hosted in Netherlands.

World Wide Hosting Patterns

From the graph you can see how this looks.

In 2018, the majority is hosted in the United States 24,92%, Netherlands 44,33%, Russian Federation 8,61%, France 5,96% and Slovakia 4,94%.

Read more on these facts in our Annual Report.

Site Types

The pie chart shows the variety of sites used to store CSAM.

Site Types

84% of the content was hosted on image hosting services. In the first half of 2019, we see 85% of detected CSAM is hosted on image hosting service.

84% Image host
7% File host
5% Website
4% Other

Reporting Patterns

226,999 images and videos were assessed as illegal, an increase of 51% on 2017.

Reporting Patterns

The following graphs provide an insight into the past two and a half years of ICCAM data – 2017, 2018 and the first half of 2019 (January to June).

Between 2017 and 2018, the number of illegal images & videos increased by 51%. This rapid rate of increase correlates with the increase in reports collected through ICCAM.

CSAM

CSAM

CSAM stands for Child Sexual Abuse Material.

ICCAM

ICCAM

INHOPE’s secure software solution to collect, exchange and categorise reports of child sexual abuse material. ICCAM is used by INHOPE hotlines in different jurisdictions (countries) and INTERPOL. The name ICCAM is derived from the phrase ‘I see Child Abuse Material.’

Hotline

What is a hotline?

A hotline enables the public to anonymously report online material they suspect may be illegal. A hotline analyst will investigate the report and if confirmed illegal, they act to have the content removed from the internet as rapidly as possible.

Reports

Reports

A ‘Report’ (when we talk about a report to a hotline) is a URL that has been reported to a hotline by a member of the public or industry that contains potentially illegal images or videos. One report can contain an unlimited number of images and videos. Often a single report can have a thousand CSAM items.

Assessed images & videos

Assessed images & videos

Assessed images & videos: In order to determine the illegality of images and videos on a particular URL, an analyst has to review the content that is visible on the reported URL. Assessed images and videos refers to all the images and videos that have been found on the reported URL.

Content removed

Content removed

Content (CSAM) removed is the time stamp recorded on ICCAM when a hotline confirms that the instance of the image and/or video has been removed from the internet.

ICCAM Reports

ICCAM Reports

Forwarded ICCAM Reports: When a hotline receives a report from the public or industry, an analyst reviews the report to determine whether it is illegal. If deemed to be illegal CSAM, the analyst traces its hosting location and then instantly forwards the URL to the hotline in the hosting country. The forwarding takes place within ICCAM (INHOPE’s secure platform).

Illegal images & videos

Illegal images & videos

‘Illegal images & videos’ refers only to content that has been classified as illegal by an INHOPE member hotline

ISP

ISP stands for Internet Service Provider. This also refers to ESP’s (Electronic Service Providers)

LEA

LEA stands for Law Enforcement Agency

Notice and Takedown

Notice and Takedown (NTD) is the time from when a hotline receives a report to the time a hotline reports it to Law Enforcement Agencies (LEA), Internet Service Providers (ISP) and ultimately that the instance of the content is removed from the internet

Good to know

Useful Documents

Annual Report 2018/2019

A review of 2018 and 2019, where we look at the INHOPE Network of Hotlines, the environment that it operates in and its global impact on CSAM.

For older reports - click here.

Luxembourg Guidelines

The Terminology Guidelines, dubbed the ‘Luxembourg Guidelines’ after their adoption in Luxembourg earlier this year, offer guidance on how to navigate the complex lexicon of terms commonly used relating to sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of children. They aim to build consensus on key concepts in order to strengthen data collection and cooperation across agencies, sectors and countries.

Child Dignity Alliance - Technology Working Group Report

The Technology Working Group was charged with examining the role of technology in combatting the proliferation of online child sexual exploitation and abuse imagery.A focus of this report is on the need to dismantle the chief technical, legal and policy silos that are frustrating real collaboration among law enforcement, industry, government and the non-government sector.