Internet Watch Foundation

 

For as long as I’ve been in post I have been acutely aware of the problem many of our funding members face in trying to report instances of abuse of their services to law enforcement agencies. There never has been an identifiable single point of contact for everyone to use, so most companies have had to rely on informal contacts with officers in various Constabularies and National Police Units to take their reports. This custom and practice has always been unsatisfactory and acknowledged so by senior police officers but it wasn’t until the NISC proposal was publicised on 1^st April that a resolution may be at long last in sight. The same quandary has also been faced by child protection Helplines who also lacked formal facilities to report or refer on suspicious behaviour on the internet or mobile networks to police.

In seeking to remedy this problem a delegation headed by ACC Stuart Hyde the former ACPO spokesperson for Combating Child Abuse on the Internet visited the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in Washington US to consider whether their model could be adapted for use in the UK. This visit coincided with Government plans to abolish the NHTCU, NCS and NCIS and replace it with a new Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). However the definition of ‘serious and organised’ became a real issue for the senior officials tasked with creating the new agency as their interpretation of ‘serious and organised’ did not include online paedophilia.

Whilst the definitional debate went on ACC Stuart Hyde put forward an alternative option along the lines of a multi-agency National Internet Safety Centre staffed by police officers and supported by child protection and online service provider professionals.

To cut a long story very short the Home Office agreed a solution with Bill Hughes the DG designate of SOCA and Sir Stephen Lander Chairman designate for SOCA to bolt on NISC to the SOCA remit with its Director being directly accountable to the SOCA Board. Essentially what is now envisaged is that the equivalent police resources from NHTCU, NCS, NCIS and Serious Sex Offenders Unit (SSOU) will be brigaded to build an outward facing type Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT) to deal with offenders and victims. The Home Office will boost the SOCA budget with £1m+ to enable this centre to be formed. The unit will gather intelligence, carry out proactive investigations and provide intelligence packages to local forces. As you might already realise that is precisely the role of POLIT and NHTCU now but they are not joined up. In addition they are planning to invite the Child Protection Agencies to add their expertise in dealing with victims and for internet professionals to help SOCA analysts and police officers understand the vagaries of the various services they all provide.

We welcome the Royal Mail as our newest member. They took up their membership with effect from 1^st April 2005.

 

Singlepoint Data Services (£5,000) and MaNap (£500) have resigned.

 

Pinsent Masons, our legal advisors, sponsored us to the tune of £9,000 during the 2004/5 financial year on the basis that we paid a retainer fee of £3,000 p.a. We have just been notified that they do not intend to renew the deal for reasons that are not altogether clear. Assuming they are not persuaded to reconsider their position we will explore alternative legal advisor sponsorship options.

 

We hope to have a combined public and industry good practice guide published by the Task Force by the summer. Caron Kempenaar from Lycos is the Editor in chief.

 

We’ve attached an operational report for the first time but the headline figures are that we processed 5,535 reports in the first quarter compared to 4504 last year and we took action with regard to 1,319 as opposed to 741 last year during the same period. PPV have risen by almost 70%, up from 396 to 663.

 

We wrote to the relevant Minister on three occasions asking whether the Government had any intention of asking the IWF to extend their remit to include incitement to religious hatred. We never did receive a direct response. Our reason for asking was because the Government were proposing to amend sections of the Public Order Act relating to incitement to racial hatred by tacking religion onto the incitement to racial hatred definition which is part of our remit. The proposals were included in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Bill but were dropped during the ‘wash-up’ following the announcement of the general election. However it seems the matter will be pursued again if Labour are re-elected because their manifesto states: "It remains our firm and clear intention to give people of all faiths the same protection against incitement to hatred on the basis of their religion. We will legislate to outlaw it and will continue the dialogue we have started with faith groups from all backgrounds about how best to balance protection, tolerance and free speech”

 

This issue is still being debated by the Home Office, Police and CPS. However if they do decide that adult content depicted on websites open to minors to see and hosted in the UK then we will need to discuss with the authorities as to how the matter should be managed. There may be an implication for us in the longer run if we are expected to issue takedown notices on such websites.

 

You will have been aware that during the week commencing the 31^st January 2005 we were allocated space in a parliamentary corridor connecting the Committee rooms to the Lords and Commons to exhibit with our partners. This privilege was a rare opportunity to exhibit to parliamentary personnel. Many Ministers, MPs and their entourages either specifically visited or stopped at the stands. We are grateful to all our funders who exhibited alongside us. The quality of the various exhibitions and the literature available was exceptional.

 

Many of you took the time and trouble to attend our lunchtime reception on 2^nd February at the House of Commons to launch our Annual Report and celebrate with members and wider stakeholders the success of the UK model in tackling online child abuse and other potentially illegal content. We were delighted to welcome the Minister Paul Goggins as one of our speakers. The occasion also afforded us the opportunity to honour LINX, ISPA and Peter Dawe OBE by presenting them with awards to signify their unswerving support since they helped create the IWF in 1996.

 

We also hosted a dinner for mobile network operators at the House of Commons on 2^nd February 2005, sponsored by O2. This event provided the mobile industry with an opportunity to meet informally with the Minister Paul Goggins to explain what they had achieved in relation to various initiatives aimed at protecting their customers and what their plans and challenges were for the future.

 

Following comments at the previous Board meeting we now have a 24/7 contact number published on our website.

 

Police Commander David Armond (Met Police) and Professor David Wall (Leeds University) were commissioned by the Home Office to inspect and review of our operational procedures, appeals and reinstatement policies on behalf of the Home Office. They visited our offices on 9^th September 2004. Their confidential final report gave us a complete clean bill of health. They made one recommendation that we should streamline the process for anyone who wishes to appeal against any URL that is added to our CAI database. That proposal has been adopted.

 

Adrian our hotline team leader continues to meet with appropriate operational police representatives to explain our role and remit.

 

Richard Bartleot from the DTI has now retired. He was the DTI expert on European matters relative to the Safer Internet Action Plan. We are now pleased to be working with Nigel Hickson who has now taken up this role.

 

As many of you will now know BT won the IWF award this year for their ‘Cleanfeed’ project.

 

We joined with other partners and presented at the Safer Internet Day on 8^th February.

 

We have always supported the Virtual Global Taskforce concept and in this regard we attended their reception to officially launch their website on 25^th January.

 

This initiative, wholly funded by the Home Office, is due to start on 1^st May.

 

Peter Robbins

16.04.05