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Content hosted in the UK has dropped from some 18 per cent in 1997 to 0.2 per cent in the first half of this year, the IWF's latest report reveals.

A spokesperson for the body told us the reason behind the startling figure. 'It's us really,' she said. 'Us and our great links with the industry. The UK is now one of the most hostile spaces to host child pornography.'

She said that the well-established channels for reporting the problem and the public intolerance of such content have been vital. Overall, the issue continues to escalate: reports to the IWF have risen 24 per cent year on year, while those reports actually found to contain child abuse rose some 49 per cent year on year to 5,000.

About half of the reported content was traced to the US, 15 per cent to Russia, 12 per cent to Japan and 9 per cent to Spain. The high figure for the US is more indicative

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of the magnitude of the territory rather than the problem, we were told.

The content itself has proved to be a mix of commercial and non-commercial. With the latter, much of it is hosted on free online services, and the IWF noted a growing trend for posting video content. Non-commercial content was also notable in that it had greater longevity compared with commercial operations. Some 20 per cent of sites containing potentially illegal content remained online long after the IWF notified the hosting company, and of those, nearly 87 per cent was non-commercial.

However, this hides the slicker operations of commercial sites, which can take their services from one hosting company to another, quickly changing servers and even country.

The other side to commercial operations that engage in this is the subsequent need to mount spam campaigns in order to publicise their new domains.

Vernon Coaker MP, Under-Secretary for Policing, Security and Community Safety, Home Office, said: 'UK Ministers continue to press for greater action at an international level, but this report underlines the importance of the work the IWF and ISPs are doing to block all UK residents from accessing websites, wherever they are hosted, identified as potentially illegal by the IWF by the end of 2007.'

'It is crucial to raise awareness among UK internet users about the IWF as the vehicle to report their inadvertent exposure to this type of content,' he added.