Global leaders and AI developers can act now to prioritise child safety
By Hannah Swirsky, Head of Policy and Public Affairs at IWF
21 February 2025
Blog
IWF calls on coders to join their Hackathon and help stop child sexual abuse online
Published: Fri 13 Jan 2023
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is calling on developers, coders, data experts and designers to attend their Tech for Good Hackathon on February 18.
The aim of the Hackathon is to help pioneer new solutions to lead the world in the fightback against the spread of child sexual abuse material on the internet.
The IWF is the UK organisation responsible for finding and removing images and videos of child sexual abuse from the internet.
The Hackathon will look to bring together volunteers with different tech backgrounds to find new and innovative solutions to help make the internet a safer place and to protect children. It will take place in Portland Communications’ offices in Southwark St, London.
Anyone with professional programming experience is encouraged to come along and contribute to one or more of the challenges planned for the day.
Chris Wilson, Head of Software at the IWF, said: “The work is varied and will range from simple automation tasks to complex questions around computer vision, image processing and machine learning.”
The hackathon, which is being sponsored by law firm BDB Pitmans, and Portland Communications, will start at 8.30am on February 18, and will finish at 5pm. The criteria for each challenge will be made available to confirmed participants on a pre-Hackathon call a week before the day itself.
Chris Broom, Business Development Manager and IWF relationship lead at BDB Pitmans, commented: ‘IWF’s work is something very close to the heart of our employees and we are delighted to sponsor the hackathon event which marks a great opportunity for volunteers to network and engage with an organization at the centre of the fight against child sexual abuse material. We have no doubt the session will have a positive impact for all involved – it’s a chance for those with professional programming skills to make a real impact.’
Please contact [email protected] to find out more about the event and to register your interest.
