Fifteen times more child sexual abuse material found online than 10 years ago

Experts from Internet Watch Foundation demand UK uses online safety bill to protect children

Experts are finding fifteen times as much child sexual abuse material online as they were a decade ago, figures show.

The online safety organisation the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), said its analysts were facing a tidal wave" of abuse material. It called on the government to ensure the online safety bill, intended to improve internet safety, was used to protect children.

IWF figures show that this year it has acted against a record amount of more than 200,000 websites containing child sexual abuse material. That is 15 times more than in 2011, when there were just over 13,000 reports of abusive content.

Susie Hargreaves, the charity's chief executive, said while major improvements in detection technology and the hiring of more analysts had helped uncover more criminal material, it remained a growing problem.