Leading the Internet Watch Foundation through this year’s leadership transition has been incredibly rewarding. So let me start with a huge thank you to our hard-working team, our dedicated trustees, loyal Members and inspiring partners for their warm welcome.
This transition comes at a particularly important time in the world of online safety. As I write this, in the UK, the Online Safety Act is being implemented by Ofcom; in the US there is an emerging trend towards extreme deregulation and in Europe there is a heated debated on the balance between privacy rights and the prevention of harmful digital content including images of child sexual abuse. Meanwhile, in Australia we see the introduction of a ban on social media for under 16-year-olds. It is no exaggeration to say that – in the field of online children’s safety – things are moving quickly!
Unfortunately, criminals and their tactics are also developing quickly, with new technologies being abused by those looking to harm and exploit children.
Every 74 seconds our analysts assessed a report in 2024 and every 108 seconds that report showed a child being sexually abused. In the past year, we’ve found more child sexual abuse content, more AI-generated images of child sexual abuse and more sophisticated techniques to evade detection and removal. We continue to work tirelessly to address these challenges. But it is only in our active partnerships with Members, charities, law enforcement, governments and other organisations who share our focus that we have any chance of meeting the scale of this problem.
We focus on one impact at a time. Wherever possible, we aim to deliver a real change that will help make children safer online.
To enable the IWF to play its part in creating a safer online world, over the past year we have embarked on an internal transformation project. We’re refreshing our bespoke Report Management System for handling reports of online child sexual abuse, and we are continuing to improve and refine our approach to data as a resource for us and others in delivering the mission.
We’ve been developing new ways that enable companies of all sizes to prevent child sexual abuse image uploads by using the IWF Hash List that will be launched in the coming weeks. I’m also grateful to those IWF Members who have supported us through our work to help identify and create an enhanced member offering that increases our Members’ impact in tackling online child sexual abuse images – this new package of benefits will also launch in 2025. We’ve also focused on updating and refining our operations and delivery models to increase our effectiveness.
I would have been honoured to lead the IWF through any phase of its development. But to do so at this time that requires so much adaptation, innovation and change, has been an incredible experience. I look forward to handing over to our new permanent CEO, Kerry Smith, who brings such an impressive range of experience to our shared endeavours, later in the year.
