Against a backdrop of increasing global regulation, the IWF is the first choice for any company that wants to keep its online platforms and services free from child sexual abuse imagery.
“We’re expecting to see a fairly sharp increase in demand from organisations wanting to work closely with us,” says Neil Prowse, Development Manager at the IWF.
In the UK, the Online Safety Act is the major driver. From April 2025, organisations must have provisions in place to protect customers and ensure their platforms are free of images showing child sexual abuse.
“By becoming a Member of the IWF, organisations gain access to our expertise, our suite of services to defend their platforms and disrupt images of child sexual abuse, direct reporting links for the fast removal of criminal images and early insights into trends and statistics,” says Neil.
“Our Members also have the potential to become involved with like-minded organisations, help drive technological development, and support the IWF awareness and prevention campaigns that can stop a child becoming a victim in the first place.”
Thanks to the IWF’s work over almost three decades, the UK is now a global leader in the eradication of images of child sexual abuse. “We’re seen as a country that collaborates across the private, public and charity sectors, working together to make sure the UK is not a safe haven for images that exploit and victimise children,” says Neil.
More than 200 organisations are currently Members of IWF. We work with a range of sectors and industries around the world, which allows us to disrupt offenders in a variety of ways to stop images of child sexual abuse being shared online.
Our Members include tech companies from across a wide range of sectors, including but not limited to hosting platforms, file sharing and cloud storage, social media, gaming, dating, cyber security, digital forensics, Internet Sevice Providers (ISPs), Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), Virtual Private Networks, Satellite Internet Connectivity providers, online payment processors, as well as government and educational bodies.
Given the growing threat of AI images, we’re delighted to have our first AI company Member. Stability AI has joined us to tackle the creation of images of child sexual abuse using AI. We’re also holding in-depth conversations with other providers of AI software who are keen to ensure their tools aren’t used to harm children.
Notable new international Members this year include Spark, New Zealand’s largest ISP, and the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, whose Digital Exploitation Team runs a platform that filters out images of child sexual abuse.
In addition to working with Members, we’re keen to team up with corporate and strategic partners to find creative ways to remove criminal images of children.
“Our trailblazing partnership with Public Interest Registry (PIR), the US non-profit, is a highlight of 2024,” says Neil Prowse, Development Manager at IWF. “PIR is sponsoring other, smaller domain registries to give them free access to the IWF services that stop criminals from ‘domain hopping’ to keep their content online.”
So far, 20 registries have taken up the offer of PIR’s sponsorship, helping to tighten the net on criminal activity across close to 38 million domains worldwide.
In another partnership initiative, we’re working with Cyacomb Safety, one of our Members, and Blipfoto, a non-profit photo journal website. For this pilot, Cyacomb Safety has developed technology that allows Blipfoto to use their hash checking service to keep its platform free of images of child sexual abuse.
“In the light of Online Safety Act requirements, this is potentially a very exciting development,” says Neil, “as it will help us share our services with smaller companies that can’t afford third-party filtering products.”
The IWF’s newly established standard of good practice for adult content providers.
In addition, the IWF is working to extend its influence in the adult pornography sector. We have developed a set of standards of good practice aimed at guiding the adult sector in the vital fight against child sexual abuse material online. Also, we have recently seen a notable shift in the VPN sector towards zero tolerance of images of child sexual abuse, with the support of the VPN Trust Initiative and its members.
“We want to work with as many areas of the internet as possible and the experts that provide these services, so that no part of the internet is a safe haven for offenders and predators to share images of child sexual abuse,” says Neil. “These collaborations give us a huge opportunity to protect children from abuse and victimisation.”
In 2025, we’re aiming to create more partnerships to generate even greater impact. Members can also look forward to accessing services through a new Member portal.
Find out about becoming a Member of IWF and what our Members say about us.