In 2023, we launched Meri Trustline, a service for children based in India, created in partnership with the RATI Foundation. This service enables children to report sexual images and videos of themselves, and any URLs the imagery might have been shared on.
Report analysis
Due to our collaboration with the RATI Foundation, an Indian child protection organisation, young people can submit online content that the IWF will assess and seek to have blocked and/or removed if it breaches UK law.
The platform has been developed by non-profit tech organisation Tech Matters in collaboration with the IWF. It builds on existing Tech Matters software, Aselo, a cloud-based contact centre platform used by the RATI Foundation to run Meri Trustline, its helpline for children facing online harms in India.
The Trustline can be accessed using any preferred method of communication channel, such as WhatsApp, email or X (formerly known as Twitter), along with a traditional phone number.
If a young person raises a concern over online sexual images, a Trustline counsellor will be able to use the tailored software to generate a reporting link and share that in the chat with the user.
Clicking on the link will then give the young person a secure single-use connection to a webpage where they can directly submit images and URLs to the IWF analysts for assessment. Designing the platform in this way reduces the burden on users, making it easier for them to report content that may be very distressing and perhaps challenging to discuss, in a safe and supported counsellor-led environment.
In 2024, 15 reports were received by the IWF through Meri Trustline and 10 of those were actionable.
This chart provides an overview of the sex of the children reported through the Meri Trustline tool.