Internet Watch Foundation

Hugo Swire MP: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average length of time taken was between discovery and removal by internet service providers of (a) illegal and (b) fraudulent content on the internet in each of the last three years.

Vernon Coaker MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Crime Reduction, Home Office: On the rare occasion child sexual abuse content reported to the Internet Watch Foundation is found to be hosted in the UK, the organisation's successful self-regulatory partnership with the online industry means it is removed expeditiously; typically within a matter of hours. It is worth noting that in 1997 18 per cent. of child sexual abuse content was found to be hosted in the UK and that this figure has been less than 1 per cent. since 2003 because of the work of the IWF with the online sector and the success of their universal notice and take-down initiative ensuring any such abuse of UK online services is dealt with swiftly and effectively.

 

As regards incitement to racial hatred and criminally obscene content, there have been no instances of UK hosted incitement to racial hatred content between 2005 and 2007 and just two instances of UK hosted criminally obscene content in the same period which were removed.

 

In relation to fraudulent websites, ISPs are required to shut down these sites within a reasonable amount of time once they have been informed about its existence by law enforcement under the e commerce directive. The directive offers ISPs protection from liability for hosting, transmitting or caching illegal material of which they have no knowledge (this would include fraudulent content). Once the material is brought to the attention of the ISP (by law enforcement), they lose their protection unless they take the material off their site as quickly as possible. There are excellent working relationships between the internet industry and law enforcement, and they have developed strong working practices and guidelines relating to services they offer and content they host. The internet industry has an excellent record in removing websites operating illegally.

 

The Government do not hold information on the time taken to remove these sites.

 

Source: Hansard 4 March 2008