With criminal sites evading permanent domains – a practice known as “domain hopping” – a partnership aims to sponsor registry providers for free access to Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) services, including detection alerts and the TLD (Top-Level Domain) Hopping List.
The “trailblazing” alliance will share missions of the Public Interest Registry and IWF to eradicate all sex abuse platforms online. PIR and IWF announced a new Extended Domain Name System Community Sponsorship to create a safer internet. The tools, being offered to registries for free, will increase awareness and make modern alerts more readily available.
The practice known as “domain hopping” enables criminals to profit from the sexual abuse of children and evade detection by regularly skipping to new domains.
IWF services will be expanded far and wide across Domain Name Registries. “Brands” commercialising abuse are also exploiting the regulatory “loopholes” and incentivising other criminals to copy the same practices.
These entities want to de-platform criminals that spread anti child safety messages through forging a market for the distribution of child abuse.
The measures will disable platforms to make them unsearchable and undiscoverable for any users.
The Public Interest Registry (PIR) is a US non-profit that operates the .ORG Top-Level Domain, strengthening safety as a priority for the internet which aligns with the IWF’s work to protect children online.
Organisations hosting domains like .org, .com, and more will be handed the tools to act quickly against abuse.
When a domain name is changed to favour a criminals’ intentions, harmful sites remain discoverable to users.
Currently only a dozen registries receive IWF Domain Alerts, the press release said, which will change if a thousand registries have access to the services.
Susie Hargreaves OBE, Chief Executive of the Internet Watch Foundation, said: “The internet is so much bigger than any one of us” – a World Wide Web which reflects the expanse of ready information we want it to serve. “And it is still growing”, she added.
“That is why this trailblazing move from PIR is so important. They are making an investment in the future safety of the internet”.
“Our world-leading protection against the spread of child sexual abuse can now be shared even more widely, sending the strong message that there is nowhere safe for criminals to target to spread child sexual abuse imagery”.
