The number of commercial websites trafficking in images of child sexual abuse has doubled over the past year, a leading internet monitoring organisation has revealed.
According to the Internet Watch Foundation's (IWF) annual report, published on Thursday, a staggering 15,031 such sites were identified in 2025, a sharp increase from 7,028 the previous year.
The report also detailed the identification and digital marking of 317,101 images depicting child abuse, a crucial step enabling tech companies to prevent their further dissemination.
Disturbingly, approximately 16 per cent of these platforms – 2,458 in total – were found to be disguised, appearing to host legitimate content or lie dormant, while secretly providing access to paedophiles.
In response, the IWF is advocating for financial services to be mandated to detect and report payment links associated with access to these abhorrent abuse images.
Kerry Smith, chief executive of the IWF, said: “It is clear criminals are exploiting systemic failures and are finding it far too easy to reap huge profits from children’s sexual exploitation.
“At every stage, we need to disrupt this system. It is an industry.
“We need mandatory measures on financial services to proactively detect, take down and report digital payment links for the sale of images and videos of child sexual abuse.
“We also need to see companies which use end-to-end encryption on their services adopt the tried and trusted safety tools which can prevent criminals using these platforms as safe havens to distribute child sexual abuse material.”
The number of children who reported being victims of so-called sextortion, where blackmailers trick or force them into providing graphic images that they threaten to release, also more than doubled last year.
The IWF saw 397 of these cases in 2025, most of which were reported to the Report Remove helpline which helps get images taken down. There were 175 in 2024.
Chris Sherwood, chief executive of the NSPCC, said: “The growing number of commercial child sexual abuse sites uncovered by the Internet Watch Foundation lays bare a severe problem, with malicious criminal gangs profiting off children’s pain.
“We know young victims of sexual exploitation are often left defenceless and can face re-traumatisation knowing images of themselves continue to circulate online. This form of abuse demands urgent action.
“Ofcom must use its powers and work with others to spot and disrupt these perpetrators at the source, before they impact more young lives.
“Equally, tech companies need to utilise existing technology that prevents children from taking, sharing, or receiving nude images.”
Jess Phillips, minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said: “These figures are sickening and we will not allow criminal gangs to profit from children’s unimaginable suffering.
“New laws in the Crime and Policing Bill will mean that anyone caught running or moderating these vile websites will face hefty prison sentences and we will not hesitate to go further.
“This government is choosing a side. Tech companies and the financial sector cannot keep turning a blind eye to an online marketplace that facilitates and profits from the sexual exploitation of children.
“We will use the full power of the British state to deliver the biggest crackdown against child abuse, both online and offline, that this country has ever seen.”
