.tk is the country-code top-level domain for Tokelau, a series of three tiny coral islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It is also the most abused top-level domain on the internet, with a high percentage of .tk domain names harbouring adult content, hate-speech, and adware, spyware, viruses and other malware. The reason for this abuse is that .tk Domain Names are freely available to anyone who wants to register them, at no cost and with no personal details required.

Aware of the abuses of .tk domain names, Dot TK, the internet registry for the ccTLD, today announced the launch of the latest version of their content filtering system WatchDot, which checks a newly-registered web address for illicit content. The system is fully automated and notifies the registrars of any potentially harmful or unsafe adult material, as well as scams, viruses and malware.

The move to improve security and reduce abuses of the domain names comes after recent studies have suggested that Tokelau is being exploited because of its free .tk registration service.