ASACP said it received more than 5,000 suspect child pornography reports in March, an increase of nearly 1,000 from previous months.
Of those cases, more than 350 sites were reported to authorities, compared to 100 a month for the last six months, ASACP said.
“This is the largest increase in new suspect child pornography companies and websites with new content that I have seen in over six years,” ASACP site reviewer Tim Henning said. “It is too early to say if this is a trend towards an even larger proliferation of child pornography on the Internet than was previously reported over the past several years or just a statistical blip.”
In addition, the issue with legal adult affiliate programs being unwittingly used for billing of child pornography continues to be a recurring problem and increased in the last month, the organization said.
ASACP says that in this scenario a child porn operator will typically send out a mass email asking surfers to visit a child porn website. When the child porn seeker arrives at the website, usually on a free hosting service, they are prompted to join the child porn site by paying for a membership at an adult website where the child porn operator is an affiliate. The child porn seeker is instructed to send the username and password for the adult website to an email address where the child porn operator can verify that the seeker has joined the adult website. After verification, an email is sent to the seeker containing login information to the actual website.
ASACP Executive Director Joan Irvine said more than 4,700 websites display the organization’s logo and participate in the attempt to curb child pornography.
“We hope that the information that ASACP provides the FBI and NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) will help them apprehend these horrific criminals,” Irvine said.
