IWF URL List
What is the IWF URL list?
We provide a list of webpages containing child sexual abuse images and videos hosted outside of the UK to companies who want to block or filter them for their users’ protection, and to prevent the repeated victimisation of the children in the images. We update the list twice a day, removing and adding URLs.
During 2021:
- The list was sent across all seven continents.
- A total of 203,234 unique URLs were included on the list (a 38% increase on 147,232 in 2020).
- On average, 1,001 new URLs were added each day (591 in 2020).
- The list contained an average of 5,526 URLs per day (5,747 in 2020).
Why is the URL List important?
When the URL List is deployed by a technology company, it prevents people from stumbling across known – and available – images or videos of children being sexually abused. In tandem, we recommend that companies show a “splash page” or information page in the event that someone tries to access a webpage which is on our list. This tells people why they can’t access the webpage and where they can go for help should they be worried about their online behaviour.