The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has published findings from its Annual Data and Insights Report 2025, which sets out trends identified through its monitoring and reporting activity.

The report shows that the number of commercial child sexual abuse websites identified by IWF analysts increased from 7,028 in 2024 to 15,031 in 2025. These websites host child sexual abuse imagery that is offered for sale. The imagery identified by the IWF can involve victims of all ages and includes material assessed as among the most severe forms of child sexual abuse.

The IWF reports that some of these sites were designed to appear non‑criminal or inactive, enabling them to operate on the open web while attempting to avoid detection. Many of the sites accepted payment through cryptocurrencies, card payments or money transfer services.

The report also documents an increase in reports from young people experiencing sexually coerced extortion, which rose by 127% compared to 2024. Almost all of these reports were made through Report Remove, the free service delivered by the IWF in partnership with the NSPCC, which supports children and young people under 18 to remove nude images or videos of themselves from the internet.