The Internet Watch Foundation has confirmed that almost half of the child sexual abuse images reported to the Foundation last year were hosted in the Netherlands. The study also confirmed that more than 105,000 web addresses were connected to illegal images in 2018, with 47% of the content hosted in the Netherlands. It also warned that the country was becoming a “safe haven for child sexual abuse”. The Internet Watch Foundation is an independent organization that lets people report illegal child sex abuse images that they spot online. The organization works with websites, social networks and law enforcement to have the images taken down and investigated. The Dutch government has acknowledged this study as well as the epidemic of an increase in reports of child abuse images and has pledged to tackle it.
