Internet Watch Foundation

 

All our members responded very positively to all the renewal invoices that were delivered since the 1^st April 2004. Additional financial support from MCI who increased their subscription from £5K to £20K and from Wanadoo up from £20K to £25K is very much appreciated.

Cyberpatrol, Research Machines, Faceparty, Paypal and Nokia have all joined since our last meeting. Negotiations are underway with Pipex, BP, PSINet, and Host Europe and arrangements are in hand to meet with Beeb.net, Freedom2Surf and Eclipse.

Breathe is now under new ownership. I’ve already met with their new senior personnel and they will remain members.

 

The international law firm Masons will be providing general counsel, legal advice and support to the IWF under a sponsorship deal for twelve months.

 

Following discussions with the Chair and Vice Chairs a suitable format is being devised to provide quarterly income and expenditure reports. The first of these reports will be available at the next Board meeting once the first quarter figures have been collated and evaluated.

 

The change of logo has been well received and all the corporate changes to letterheads, business cards and other literature is well underway.

Breaks Media won the contract to redesign and build our new website. Tony and Fay are working closely with the contractor to create a ‘portal’ style website. We hope to have a Beta launch in early August and a live version up and running in September.

 

It may not have escaped your notice that the media picked up on the use of our child abuse database by BT. Our database has been available to all our members free of charge as a value added service as part of their membership since Board approved this policy in 2002.

 

Fay and Funding Council colleagues are making progress on drafting a strategy document that will be circulated as soon as possible.

 

We now have our first generic IWF leaflet. The leaflet has been designed on the basis that any company logo can be easily added to it as a sponsorship deal for any event.

 

We are about to announce the mid year trends for 2004.

We think the headlines will be along the lines that reports from the public appear to have peaked and are on the decline although the number of websites still publishing potentially illegal content remain a cause for concern.

We attribute the changing trend in reports to:

1.  significant strides the internet industry to introduce anti spam measures

2.  software that prevents images from being opened without the consumer consciously clicking on the image.

3.  alertness amongst the public that they should not open e mails where the sender is unknown.

Despite the reduction in reports the number of websites that are actionable are still very evident. The reduction in reports is not matched proportionately with a corresponding reduction in potentially illegal websites. (actual statistics are being validated at time of writing)

 

The UK is still hovering around the 1% mark of potentially illegal content, the US have dropped from 55% to around 42.5% but Russia is up from 23% to 31%.

 

The Searchsafe group that has been convened under the auspices of the Home Office Task Force has had a number of meetings. Progress is good.

 

We have regular contact with many MPs and Peers about matters related to our remit. These interactions come in various guises from direct approaches by us or them to meet on a one to one to basis through to general briefings and meetings that MPs and Peers attend via invitations from various sources.

 

In 2003 the Home Secretary established this group. Part of their role was to ensure the effective and timely implementation of the Sex Offences Act 2003 and then to monitor the impact of the Act’s provisions following implementation.

 

The purpose of the group is far broader than implementing the legislation and is focussed on promoting and co-ordinating a wide range of cross-government action to tackle sexual offending, and provide appropriate support for the victims of sexual crimes.

 

The IWF have been invited to address this group of senior government representatives on the work of the IWF. Those expected to be in attendance will be:

Baroness Scotland (HO) (Chair)

Paul Goggins (Deputy Chair - HO)

Harriet Harman (Solicitor General)

Margaret Hodge (DfES)

Jacqui Smith (DTI)

Chris Leslie (DCA)

Lord Rooker (ODPM)

Rosie Winterton (DoH)

Jane Kennedy (DWP)

 

The IWF have been invited together with others to a forum with Michael Howard, Theresa May and other Conservative frontbenchers to discuss internet safety for children.

 

The flood of requests from media outlets for information continues unabated. Fay is always extremely busy responding to researcher requests for information both verbally and in writing.

 

You may have seen publicity arising from a VGT summit recently arranged by the NCS and attended by representatives from police agencies from the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

The over arching aim of the VGT is to reassure internet consumers that police officers are overtly patrolling the internet by forging new ways to ensure the partnership continues to grow. The IWF contributed to the discussions in the developing appropriate police strategies.

 

This event was rescheduled from 16th – 19th July to 22nd – 25th October 2004 at the NEC Birmingham. We have been advised that the show organisers Imago Communications are looking to hand the event over to another agent as it has grown too big for them to manage. As soon as we have more information on this front Fay will circulate more information.

I am scheduled to visit the NCMEC in Washington on 12th July with ACC Stuart Hyde (ACPO), DI Stuart Trail (POLIT) Nick Truman (BT), John Carr (CHIS), Donald Findlater (Stop it Now), and a BECTA representative to examine the potential for mirroring the better aspects of the NCMEC model in the UK. ACC Stuart Hyde will present the findings to the Home Office Task Force on 14th July. (All my travel and expenses are funded by ACC Stuart Hyde)

 

A paedophile in Toronto Canada snatched a ten year old girl off the street and raped and strangled her. He said his behaviour was triggered after he viewed child abuse images on the internet. That case sparked off numerous requests from the Canadian media to explain how the successful IWF/industry/government/police partnership model works. Despite the horrific nature of the case it seems that the tragedy has the potential to stimulate all the relevant organisations in Canada to consider adopting our model.

 

Peter Robbins

Chief Executive