Alerts sent to every citizen encourage use of portal where illegal images and videos can be flagged up anonymously

Text messages urging people to report online child abuse were sent to every Zambian national on Tuesday, as the country launched a crackdown on illegal images.

Zambia is the latest southern African country to set up a portal for reporting abusive images or videos that allows members of the public to report online content anonymously. Disclosures will be analysed by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a British charity that works with internet companies, governments and law enforcement to remove illegal images.

The initiative is intended to create stronger safeguards as internet access widens across Zambia, where an estimated one in five people are online.

“Increasingly, children in Zambia have access to mobile phones and mobile internet. Their safety online is paramount,” said Muyeba Chikonde, the high commissioner for Zambia in the UK, who explained that some people were reluctant to come forward. “[People] also get scared to [speak out] – tomorrow you are a witness, and all these issues.”

It is hoped the portal will make it considerably easier for people to flag abuse confidentially.

Zambia is the seventh country in the Southern African Development Community to establish such a portal, following concern about a lack of reporting mechanisms in developing countries. Malawi, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Mauritius and Namibia have all launched similar projects through the IWF. Burundi and Uganda have also introduced portals.

Funding from the Global Fund to End Violence Against Children will support the introduction of similar projects in 30 developing countries.

Last year, the IWF identified and removed more than 80,000 webpages containing child sexual abuse images and videos. The darkweb and the borderless nature of online child abuse – a child could be abused in Russia, with images hosted in the Netherlands and viewed in Australia – presents a challenge to child protection experts.

Cambridge-based analysts for the IWF assess images to spot clues that might identify where abuse has taken place. “Often you can tell from an image, there might be a plug socket or some sound on the video which help to identify a child,” said Susie Hargreaves, the IWF’s chief executive. “We can then escalate it and law enforcement can step in.”

But in the vast majority of cases it is not possible to save a child. One analyst, who could not be named, said she has often seen the same child being abused throughout their childhood and teenage years. “A lot of times we’ll see children grow up online from a very young age right through to teenager. Some of them have got to the point where you can’t do anything about them because they’ve crossed that threshold of age,” she said, adding that they sometimes continue to appear in images as adults.

As access to the internet grows in developing countries, the profile of children who are being abused is also changing. “Because internet penetration has been predominantly in the western world, we have tended to see, historically, more white caucasian children. But as the internet develops in different countries, we’re starting to see different patterns develop,” said Hargreaves.

On Tuesday, the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority sent a message to each phone owned by a Zambian national, urging citizens to report abuse through the country’s portal.

Chikonde said government ministries are now focused on raising awareness among members of the public. “Sometimes it’s fear of the unknown [that prevent a person reporting abuse]. The beauty of the portal is that you can report it anonymously. I don’t see why you should keep quiet if you see something.”