“For me, it was always about the mission … about doing a job that made a difference”

A former analyst at the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has spoken about her 17-year career helping to remove child sexual abuse imagery from the internet, as the Cambridge-based child protection charity recruits for ‘courageous and kind’ candidates for several roles.

Sarah*, 44, joined the IWF’s Hotline in March 2009, and spent nearly two decades assessing reports of child sexual abuse material and working to ensure the criminal content was removed from the internet.

During her time at the IWF, Sarah witnessed significant growth at the organisation. When she started, the charity had only 15 employees, including four analysts. Today the Hotline team includes 15 analysts, with further recruitment under way.

Sarah describes how becoming a parent strengthened her commitment to the IWF’s mission, despite the work becoming more personally challenging.

Sarah said: “Once I became a mum, I think sometimes it got harder because of having to see content that you can relate to. But in terms of the mission, it got easier. It gave me even more motivation to do the job.”

Now a mother of two boys aged nine and 14, Sarah has recently left the organisation to pursue a new challenge after spending 17 years helping to protect children online.

Originally from Essex, Sarah studied psychology at university before moving to Cambridgeshire. Before joining the IWF, she worked as ground staff at Stansted Airport and initially viewed the analyst role as a stepping stone towards a career in psychology.

Instead, she found a role that gave her a lasting sense of purpose.

She said: “I’ve always been very dedicated to the mission. I'm passionate about what we do, and it's given me a lot of meaning in my life to be able to do a job that makes a difference. It is very difficult to now leave it behind.”

The IWF works to detect, disrupt, remove and prevent child sexual abuse material online. The organisation assesses every report received, whether from the public, law enforcement or partner organisations, and ensures that criminal content is removed from the internet.

Alongside the sense of purpose she found in her role, Sarah credits the charity’s welfare support and the strength of her colleagues for her long career at the organisation.

Sarah also acted as a Welfare Officer, helping to support colleagues’ wellbeing, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Hotline analysts continued attending the office to carry out their critical work.

“It’s very important that staff are well looked after and supported, because the content can be difficult to view. So, you have to be prepared and have coping mechanisms,” Sarah said.

The IWF is recognised as having a gold standard welfare programme. Analysts undertake specialist induction training, have restricted working hours, take regular wellbeing breaks and attend mandatory monthly counselling sessions.

During her career, Sarah also worked in the Hotline’s Quality Assessment team, helping to maintain the high standards of the charity’s work.

She said: “I felt like I needed to challenge myself or grow but I didn’t want to leave the IWF. Going to QA gave me a lot of confidence and I brought that back into my analyst role.”

Sarah said the nature of online child sexual abuse has changed considerably over the years, with analysts at the IWF seeing increasing volumes of ‘self-generated’ content, where children are groomed, coerced or tricked into sharing sexual images of themselves. The trauma and shame felt by victims and survivors can have a continuing impact on their lives.

“It definitely changed,” said Sarah. “There was an explosion of what we term self-generated content. I think I first remember seeing it in about 2010, in line with when smartphones became more common. It’s really had an effect on our work.”

She also pointed to the impact of new technologies, such as generative AI, on the scale of online abuse. Earlier this month, the IWF reported that in the first half of 2026, analysts identified more AI generated images of child sexual abuse than in the whole of 2025, a 40% rise.

At the same time, Sarah highlighted technological advances that have helped tackle child sexual abuse material online, including image hashing technology, which gives known criminal content a unique digital code, allowing it to be identified and removed without the imagery having to be viewed.

“I believe hashing has made a difference,” said Sarah. “I see far less of the repeated content I used to see. It’s sad that children were being repeatedly victimised years later, but this technology has helped reduce that.”

Sarah has now taken on a new role as a school safeguarding officer, continuing her career in child protection.

In a message to colleagues before leaving, she described it as ‘an honour and privilege’ to have supported victims and those reporting abuse for so many years, and paid tribute to her ‘courageous, kind and awe-inspiring’ colleagues.

Samantha O’Byrne, Head of People at the IWF, said: “Sarah’s story reflects the dedication, compassion and resilience of the people who work at the IWF. Every role here contributes to our mission of protecting children from abuse online, and through our welfare programme we ensure colleagues feel supported throughout their careers. As we continue to grow, we are looking for talented people who share our values and want to make a real difference through their work.”

The IWF is currently looking for a number of roles across the organisation. The closing date for applications is November 8, 2026. You can access our careers page via our website.

*Not her real name. The IWF protects the identity of analysts and assessors in the Hotline because of the sensitive nature of the work that they undertake.