The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is celebrating 10 years of battling illegal online content, most of which relates to child abuse.

According to the release of its 10-year statistics, the number of child abuse websites hosted in the UK has rapidly decreased from 18 per cent in 1996 to 0.2 per cent today.

Since its inception in 1996, the web watchdog has processed an average of 1,000 reports a month with more than 31,000 websites found to contain potentially illegal child abuse content being shut down.

Things have become a lot busier for the group as time has passed, with the IWF processing just 615 reports in 1996 compared with almost 28,000 for this year alone.

The group has worked at home and abroad with many other hotline services to remove illegal content in 23 countries. The IWF now tracks potential child abuse material in online photo-sharing services, message boards and proprietary groups as well as newsgroups and websites.

Of all the reports processed, 85 per cent relate to suspected child abuse websites, 10 per cent to suspected criminally obscene sites and five per cent to websites suspected of inciting racial hatred.

“Founded by the internet industry in 1996, the IWF has gone on to secure a membership of over 70 companies and organisations and has almost eradicated online child abuse images hosted in the UK,” said Peter Robbins, IWF chief executive.

“We are proud to share our successful self-regulatory model with other countries."

Robbins said the IWF's achievements had been helped by its partnerships with other internet and mobile companies, as well as public and government bodies.