Mastercard joins IWF in fight to keep internet safe

A new partnership between the Internet Watch Foundation and financial services giant Mastercard will help improve internet safety at a critical moment.

Mastercard has joined the IWF as Members as part of a broader stance the company is taking against the spread of unauthorised and illegal content.

Additionally, Mastercard has made a financial donation to support the IWF’s efforts to find and remove from the internet images and videos of children suffering sexual abuse.

Mastercard recently extended standards for merchants who sell adult content, requiring clear consent from anyone featured in images and controls in place to monitor, block and, where necessary, take down all content as appropriate.

Susie Hargreaves OBE, Chief Executive of the IWF, said the new partnership will help make the internet a safer place for everyone.

She said: “We are really pleased to see Mastercard taking a leading role in preventing criminals abusing payment services on the internet to spread videos and images of the sexual abuse of children.

“We know that, for victims, the abuse doesn’t end once the camera stops and that, for many children, the knowledge that those videos or pictures of their abuse exist haunts them, and prevents them from moving on.

“As a charity, we rely on donations, so the additional help from Mastercard will help our analysts carry on their essential work keeping the internet safe for everyone.”

Paul Petta, Chief Franchise Officer at Mastercard, said: “We have a clear and strong focus on finding and addressing illegal content of all kinds.

“It’s through partnerships like this that we can best activate our respective know-how and technology to remove illegal content from our network.

“The Internet Watch Foundation has made significant strides and we’ll learn from their experience to continue to enhance our efforts.”

Mastercard joins the IWF at a critical time. In 2020, IWF analysts dealt with a record number of reports of online child sexual abuse material, while the coronavirus crisis sees more people than ever relying on the internet to learn, work, and socialise.

Find out more about becoming a Member and the services the IWF can provide here https://www.iwf.org.uk/our-technology/our-services/.