Trends in online child sexual exploitation: Examining the distribution of captures of live-streamed child sexual abuse

New research by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has revealed statistics on children being groomed, coerced and blackmailed into live-streaming their own sexual abuse over webcams, tablets and mobile phones.

'Online Child Sexual Exploitation: Examining the Distribution of Captures of Live-streamed Child Sexual Abuse' was conducted over a three-month period and identified 2,082 images and videos of live-streamed child sexual abuse.

Key findings from the research:

• 98% of images found were of children aged 13 and under
• 28% of images found were aged 10 or under, while the youngest victim was just three-years-old.
• 96% of victims were girls.
• 96% showed a child on their own, in a home environment.
• 18% of the abuse was categorised as Category A, which includes the rape and sexual torture of children.
• 40% of the abuse was categorised as Category A or B, which indicates serious sexual abuse.
• 100% of images had been harvested from their original upload locations.

The full IWF research report can be found here.