Websites Selling Child Sex Abuse Doubled in 2025, Watchdog Says

The number of websites illegally selling access to child sex abuse images more than doubled last year, according to new research from the UK authority responsible for finding and removing such material from the internet.

The UK’s Internet Watch Foundation unearthed 15,031 commercial child sexual abuse sites in 2025, a 114% increase from a year earlier, according to a report published Thursday. The foundation described these sites as offering “premium access” to illegal and abusive content, which “can involve victims of all ages, and can include some of the most severe and extreme forms of sexual abuse.”