Web criminals leaving US for Russia

While the UK remains relatively free of illegal online content, those who host criminal material are increasingly choosing Russia-based providers over the US.

According to the web watchdog the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the traditional hotspot where criminally racist and pornographic content is hosted - the US - has seen a drop in the number of illegal sites over the last year.

According to the IWF, in 2003, the US hosted 55 per cent of illegal sites. That number dropped to 40 per cent in 2004.

The percentage of illegal sites hosted by Russia rose in parallel - up from 23 per cent in 2003 to 31 per cent in 2004. Some Asian countries - China, Japan, South Korea and Thailand - also experienced a rise in illegal content.

The IWF believes that the increase of illegal web activity in some countries can be traced to the ability of criminals to host their sites for free.

"Countries where free hosting is popular often attracts posting of paedophilic content and we have seen some growth in this areas. We believe Thailand, Russia and Spain are examples of where free hosting services are being abused to host potentially illegal content," the IWF's annual report says.

The amount of illegal content hosted by the UK remains static at about one per cent.

The IWF has also noted a drop in reports of potentially illegal being reported, down from around 20,000 in 2003 to just over 17,000 last year.

However, that doesn't mean that the amount of criminal content available on the web has dropped accordingly - the IWF took more legal action against potentially criminal sites than last year.

The IWF annual report says: "We have seen a 10 per cent increase in potentially illegal content which could be deemed actionable, relative to the reports received. These figures clearly imply that potentially illegal images are still readily available and by virtue of the evidence emerging from police arrests and subsequent court reports the content is still in demand."