Internet Watch Foundation

The IWF Hotline provides internet users with a means of reporting potentially illegal content that are located on websites, newsgroups and online groups that specifically contain:

• images of child sexual abuse* hosted anywhere in the world.
• criminally obscene content hosted in the UK.
• incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK.

You should make a report to us if you see something that you believe to be potentially illegal, like child sexual abuse images or criminally obscene and incitement to racial hatred sites.

 

If you are unsure as to whether the content is legal or not, be on the safe side and report it. Your report will be acknowledged and assessed within 24 hours of receipt excluding weekends and public holidays unless exceptional circumstances prevail.

 

Our Internet Content Analysts who make up our 'hotline' team undergo comprehensive police and in-house training on all aspects of assessing and tracing internet content.

 

We are concerned with the interpretation of the law, not personal taste, decency or morality.

We can only act on content that is within our remit and breaches UK legislation.

Child Sexual Abuse Images*
The law on images of child sexual abuse is clear. It is an offence to take, permit to be taken, make, possess, show, distribute or advertise indecent images of children in the United Kingdom.

 

As a guide, the word 'indecent' means any images of children, under 18 years of age, involved in a sexual pose or activity.

 

 

We are able to take action against images of child sexual abuse on the Internet hosted anywhere in the world.

This is because we work in partnership with the Internet Hotline Providers Association (INHOPE); a network of international Hotlines and the UK’s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, who pass relevant information to INTERPOL.

 

The law on obscene publications is difficult to define in everyday terms.

As a guide it could include images featuring acts of extreme sexual activity such as bestiality, necrophilia, rape or torture.

 

 

The law on incitement to racial hatred content makes it an offence to stir up racial hatred against a group of persons in Great Britain, defined by reference to colour, race, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origins.