Child Sexual AbuSe ImageS - Canadian Centre for Child Protection

cybertip.ca
TAble 5.9 the most common tlds on
child pornography websites
.com 56.9% (7,225)
.net 9.6% (1,219)
.info 9.1% (1,161)
.biz 6.0% (763)
.org 3.2% (407)
.ru 3.0% (380)
.to 1.8% (229)
ip host 1.7% (216)
.jp 1.3% (164)
.us 0.8% (106)
.cn 0.8% (99)
.es 0.5% (63)
.de 0.5% (59)
.name 0.4% (56)
.ro 0.4% (55)
.bz 0.4% (53)
.ws 0.4% (49)
56 remaining tlds 3.1% (391)
total 12,696
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5 | WebSiteS hoStiNg Child Sexual abuSe imageS
Top Level domains
A website’s top level domain (TLD) refers to the end of the domain name. For
example, in http://www.cybertip.ca, the domain name is www.cybertip.ca. The top
level domain is "ca"; it includes everything after the last period. TLDs fall into one
of three categories:
1 geNeriC tld (gtldS): refer to TLDs that have three or more characters and
can be used by anyone for a general purpose. .com was originally designed to
be used by commercial enterprises, but has since become the most popular
domain for all websites, particularly those hosted in the United States.
Other common examples include: .edu for educational institutions, .gov for
government entities, and .mobi for websites designed for viewing on mobile
phones.
2 CouNtry Code tldS (cctldS): refer to TLDs that are based on two-character
international country codes. Generally speaking, ccTLDs are only used by
websites that are hosted in a particular country. Country code managers,
however, do not follow a consistent set of standards. For example, in Canada
you have to prove that you reside in the country to purchase a .ca domain,
but you do not have to be a resident of the Christmas Islands to purchase a
.cx domain. This complicates tracking and website take-down policies. Some
common ccTLDs examples include: .cn for China, .ru for Russia, and .es for
Spain.
3 ip hoSted SpaCe: refer to URLs that are represented by numbers, rather than
text. For example, typing http://205.200.235.228 into a browser's address bar
will access the www.cybertip.ca website.
There are 73 different TLDs represented among 12,696 child pornography websites
reported to Cybertip.ca. 96.9% (12,305) consist of the 17 most prominent TLDs,
six of which are gTLDs and 10 of which are ccTLDs. The remainder consists of IP
hosted domain space:
gTLds 85.3% (10,833)
ccTLds 13.0% (1,647)
iP host 1.7% (216)
Recommendation: Establish international standards for the personal information a registrant
5 is required to provide when registering a new domain name. This could include proof of name and
address, residency in a particular country, and contact information. This information could be valuable in
the event of an investigation, assisting in determining the owner of a child pornography website, and
potentially rescuing children from ongoing sexual abuse. This would require collaboration with the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.
It is not surprising that .com and .net are the most widely used top level domains
for child abuse images—they are the most popular TLDs overall (Wikipedia, 2009). It is
interesting, however, that .info is third on the list of TLDs hosting child pornography,
as it is not a widely used TLD overall and was not available for registration until
2001. While the tipline suspects that some child pornography domain names are
purchased as “throw-aways”(the owner purchases them only expecting them to be
up for a short period of time, possibly revoked by the registry, or registrar), it is not
possible to investigate this through the Cybertip.ca database.
Recommendation: Partner with domain name registrants to have domains hosting illegal
6 content discarded from use. This would prevent new website owners from purchasing domains
known to host child pornography and reusing them for the same purpose. Due to the fact that the
domain names become important marketing tools, and become well-known to consumers of child abuse
images, steps need to be taken to remove them permanently from circulation.
wEBSiTES hOSTiNg ChiLd SEXuAL ABuSE imAgES
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