After years of ignoring pleas to sign up to kid protection schemes, the controversial messaging app Telegram has agreed to work with an internationally recognised body to stop the spread of kid sexual abuse material (CSAM).

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is used by major online services to assist them detect and remove CSAM, and prevent its spread.

Telegram had repeatedly refused to engage with it or any similar scheme.

But, four months after its founder Pavel Durov was arrested in Paris for Telegram’s alleged setback to moderate extreme content, the platform has announced a U-turn.

The IWF has described Telegram’s selection as “transformational” but warned it was the first step in a “much longer trip” for the app.

“By joining the IWF, Telegram can commence deploying our globe-leading tools to assist make sure this material cannot be shared on the service,” said Derek Ray-Hill, Interim CEO at the IWF.

Telegram is used by around 950 million people worldwide and has previously positioned itself as an app focussed on its users’ privacy rather than the policy norms prioritised by other global social media companies.

But reporting from the BBC and other information organisations highlighted criminals using the app to advertise drugs as well as propose cybercrime and fraud services and, most recently, CSAM.

It led one specialist to brand it “the dim web in your pocket.”

In August, its billionaire owner was detained at an airport north of Paris.

Mr Durov is accused of a setback to co-operate with law enforcement over drug trafficking, kid sexual content and fraud.

French judges have barred the 40-year-ancient from leaving France pending further investigations.

The business maintains that his arrest is unfair, and that he should not be held liable for what users do on the platform.

Nonetheless, Telegram has since announced a series of changes to the way it operates, including:

• Announcing IP addresses and phone numbers of those who violate its rules will be handed over to police in response to valid legal requests
• Disabling features like “people nearby” which it admitted had issues with bots and scammers
• Publishing regular transparency reports about how much content is taken down – a standard industry habit it had previously refused to comply with

Mr Durov has also vowed to “turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of compliment”.

The collaboration with the IWF appears to be the latest step in that procedure.

The IWF is one of a few organisations in the globe that is legally able to search for kid sexual content to get it taken down.

Its ever-evolving list of known abuse content is used by websites to detect and block matches to stop it spreading.

Telegram says that before becoming a member of IWF it removed hundreds of thousands of pieces of abuse material each month using its own systems. The IWF membership will strengthen its mechanisms, the business said.

The app is marketed as a fully complete-to-complete encrypted messaging service – meaning only the sender and recipient of a communication can read it – like WhatsApp and Signal.

But in truth the majority of communication is done with standard encryption, raising questions about how secure from hacking and interception it is.

Mr Durov, who was born in Russia and now lives in Dubai, has citizenship in Russia, France, the United Arab Emirates and the Caribbean island country of St Kitts and Nevis.

Telegram is particularly popular in Russia, Ukraine and former Soviet Union states as well as Iran.