Published: Mon 5 Jun 2023
New Jersey-based tech company VPNWholesaler will be the first standalone VPN service provider to block child sexual abuse material from being viewed on its networks.
By working in partnership with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), VPNWholesaler will have access to the IWF’s URL List which provides a comprehensive list of hosts and domains containing confirmed images and videos of child sexual abuse.
The VPN provider will use the URL list to block access to criminal material across the 33 million VPN (Virtual Private Network) accounts that the company supports.
In 2022, IWF analysts identified more than 255,500 webpages or URLs that contained child sexual abuse imagery and acted to get them blocked or removed.
These webpages are added to the child protection charity’s URL List which is updated twice a day, with new URLs added as they are found, and URLs removed if they no longer contain criminal content.
Isaac Cohen, Founder and Chief Executive of VPNWholesaler, said: “We are the first standalone VPN service that now actively blocks child sexual abuse material. In addition, we will keep on maintaining our socially responsible minimalistic connection logs policy, which provides the right balance between protecting end-user privacy while discouraging bad actors from abusing the anonymity feature of our powerful VPN service for illegal purposes.
“I professionally and personally hope that other VPN companies will follow our steps.”
Susie Hargreaves OBE, Chief Executive of the IWF, said: “The IWF works tirelessly to rid the internet of horrific child sexual abuse material and our Members are vital partners in this endeavour.
“Shocking levels of child sexual abuse imagery is shared and viewed on the internet every day and we welcome the commitment by VPNWholesaler to ensure that its services are free of this awful content.
“One webpage can contain thousands of images or videos of children being sexually abused, which equates to millions circulating online. We must do everything in our power to make certain that children, and other users, are protected online.”
Find out more about becoming a Member and the services the IWF can provide here.
IWF backs government move requiring tech companies to urgently implement nudity detection and blocking on children’s devices.
