Published: Tue 9 Dec 2014
Internet Watch Foundation’s (IWF) international reporting solution will be presented to more than 50 countries at a global summit held by Prime Minister David Cameron this week (10-11 Dec).
Susie Hargreaves, CEO and Fred Langford, Deputy CEO, will present an overview of the IWF’s work in the UK and internationally. Since 2004 less than 1% of known imagery has been hosted in the UK, making it one of the most hostile territories in the world. This success is due to the partnership working between the IWF, the internet industry, law enforcement and UK government.
The IWF Online Child Sexual Abuse Reporting Portal provides countries with an emerging internet infrastructure a means to report suspected child sexual abuse imagery.
Last year 95% of countries* which have been found to host images of child sexual abuse already have a hotline of their own (circa 50 countries have hotlines).
But as more countries develop their networks to get their populations online, it leaves global citizens vulnerable to stumbling across the criminal content with nowhere to report.
The IWF’s reporting portal is already used by Mauritius, and other countries are set to sign up.
It’s cost effective as all the assessment and removal work takes place at the IWF’s headquarters in the UK by its expert analysts and action is taken through its well-established partnerships. And as countries’ needs grow, the solution grows with them.
The IWF is also attending the summit as an exhibitor.
Over the two days, announcements will be made regarding the IWF’s results since 1 April 2014 when it was given the ability to proactively seek out child sexual abuse imagery.
Since 1996, the IWF has taken reports from the public, police and internet industry. This work continues, but with an added ability for the analysts to use their expertise and intelligence to search for the criminal content.
Full statistics relating to the IWF are published annually in its annual and charity report here: https://www.iwf.org.uk/accountability/annual-reports/2013-annual-report
*Source: https://www.iwf.org.uk/accountability/annual-reports/2013-annual-report page 15.
Notes to editors:
Contact: Emma Hardy, IWF Director of External Relations +44 (0) 1223 203030 or +44 (0) 7929 553679.
About the IWF
The IWF is the Hotline to report:
· child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world;
· criminally obscene adult content hosted in the UK;
· non-photographic child sexual abuse images hosted in the UK.
For more information please visit www.iwf.org.uk.
The IWF is part of the UK Safer Internet Centre, working with Childnet International and the South West Grid for Learning to promote the safe and responsible use of technology.
About the IWF URL list
We provide a list of webpages of child sexual abuse images and videos hosted abroad to companies who wish to voluntarily block or filter them for their users’ protection and to prevent the revictimsation of the child. The list is dynamic, updated twice daily with URLs added and removed.
For more information please visit https://www.iwf.org.uk/join-us/services.
Local MP Ian Sollom learned about the herculean task faced by analysts at the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) who find, assess and remove child sexual abuse material on the internet.
