irish sexoffender's List: Child Porn Incidence

The number of reports of sex abuse imagery involving young victims on the internet has rocketed in the past 12 months – and the tally is expected to grow in future.

Peter Davies (pictured), Head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, said volumes had “expanded massively” in the past year – and confirmed that the Centre had been restructuring in a move to counter the increasing threat.

He revealed that CEOP had been reconfigured, with some senior management posts removed in order to recruit extra members of staff at the sharp end. Mr Davies also said the restructuring would put the Centre in a strong position to become part of the National Crime Agency in the months ahead.

The report revealed that the number of sites trying to make money out of selling images of abuse was in decline. In the past two years the IWF had identified 998 unique sources of material. In 2011, only 440 of these were active and no new "top level" source had been identified.

Online child abuse images are becoming "more extreme, sadistic and violent", with the vast number of images and pressure on resources making identifying new victims increasingly difficult, according to a study from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

Almost every UK police force has staged raids on suspected internet paedophiles leading to 99 arrests, with 24 children found whom investigators fear were at risk of abuse.<br /><br />The raids began on Tuesday and carried on through to Wednesday as part of a high-profile operation led by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).<br /><br />The raids involved 45 police forces with more than 600 officers and agents from CEOP and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency.

"Child porn is the number one concern among adults when considering a range of harmful content online, a watchdog has revealed."