There has been a dramatic rise in reports of child abuse images posted to commonly used parts of the internet, according to a US watchdog.
They include photos posted to publicly-accessible parts of social networks.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a record number of reports in the first week of July, four times the weekly average.
It comes in a week UK authorities arrested 660 people in connection with online child abuse.
That investigation was believed to have been targeted at those using the so-called “dark net” – parts of the internet that are hidden and can be hard to access without special software.
But the NCMEC stressed there was still a significant and growing challenge for law enforcement agencies to deal with material on the open internet as well as the harder-to-reach areas.
Tip-offs
In the US, all electronic communications providers (ECPs) have had to report any instance of child abuse on their networks to the Cyber Tipline provided by the NCMEC since 1998.
Since many of the world’s most popular communications sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, are based in the US, the NCMEC works with authorities around the world to follow up leads provided by tips.
The UK is among the 62 countries working closely with the NCMEC.
In the week from beginning 29 June and ending July 5, 92,800 reports were made to the Cyber Tipline.
Of those, the vast majority – 91,334 – came from internet firms, with the remainder being tip-offs from members of the public.
On average, the NCMEC receives around 15,000 reports per week.
John Shehan, executive director of the NCMEC Exploited Children Division, said the large numbers early in July may prove to be an anomaly.
But he stressed the growing concern with social networks.
“You wouldn’t think someone would do it on Pinterest or LinkedIn,” Mr Shehan said.
“But any type of platform that allows people to post images for videos – they get used for the wrong reasons.”
Extremely rare
While most would assume social networks are an unlikely place for illegal material to be shared – by people who would presumably want to hide any trace of their identity – Mr Shehan said several theories had emerged.
“When you look at the types of offenders who have a sexual interest in children, there is a wide spectrum as far as their internet knowledge, and their backgrounds with being able to anonymise and hide their identities online.
“If you look at where the content is being uploaded from – sometimes we see that it goes back to third-world countries.
“Some of these are just starting to get high-speed internet access, and they may not be as sophisticated as some countries in using different anonymisers.”
Source: BBC