Online child pornography getting brutal

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY on the internet is becoming more brutal and graphic, and the number of images depicting violent abuse has risen fourfold since 2003, according to an internet watchdog report published on tuesday.

The British-based internet watch Foundation said in its annual review that it received nearly 32000 reports of potentially illegal content on its hot line last year; marking a 34 per cent increase from the previous year.

"Although there is a volume issue, the worrying issue is the severity and gravity of the images is increasing," said the foundation's chife executive, peter robbins. "We're talking about prepubescent children being raped."

The foundation identified about 10700 individual internet addressess on 3000 sites containing child pornography content.

About 80 per cent of the chilfdren in the abusive images are female, and 91 per cent appear to be children under the age of 12, it said.

more than three in five child pornography websites were hosted in the US, while nearly a third were based in Russia.

The US National Center for missing and exploited children last year completed a pilot programme in partnership with financial institutions aimed at cutting off child pornography websites' revenues.

They identified sites that accepted credit card payments, then contacted individual banks to stop the flow of money to the sites. the center also operates a child sexual abuse hotline.