Internet Watch Foundation

 

Judy Mallaber MP: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he made of the Internet Watch Foundation's annual report 2005; and if he will make a statement.

 

Mr. Coaker: The Government welcome the 2005 annual report of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), published in March 2006, and congratulates the IWF and their partners on their achievements. The IWF report an increase in the number of reports made to their hotline, from 17,255 in 2004 to 23,658 in 2005.

 

This resulted in 6,128 reports being made to law enforcement agencies and other national hotlines around the world. The report also highlights the fact that only 0.4 per cent. of potentially illegal child abuse content identified by the IWF in 2005 was hosted in the UK. This represents a major improvement from 18 per cent. in 1997, and demonstrates the commitment of the IWF, the UK industry, and others, to work collaboratively to remove potentially illegal child abuse content wherever in the world it originates. The IWF report that there were no instances of either criminally obscene content or criminally racist content hosted in the UK during 2005.

 

The Government also pay tribute to the IWF for supplying a list of websites to ISPs, mobile operators, search providers and filtering companies so they can play their part in protecting UK internet users from being inadvertently exposed to potentially illegal child abuse content by various blocking techniques. The fact that the IWF's core funders have grown in number to over 60 is evidence of their strengthening reputation. The IWF is seen as a highly successful model of cooperation and one which other countries seek to learn from and replicate.

 

Source: Hansard 11.05.06