Sentry Parental Controls joins the IWF
25 September 2008
Sentry Parental Controls, www.sentryparentalcontrols.co.uk, has become a member of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF).Sentry Parental Controls offers protection to children online, around the clock, from anywhere in the world. It allows parents to be alerted to any inappropriate online activity as it happens, as well as blocking any unsuitable websites, web chat and applications. Sentry works to monitor all online activity, controls time usage and settings, and allows parents to have access to a child’s computer and personal usage logs from anywhere in the world.
The IWF is the UK internet ‘Hotline’ for the public to report their inadvertent exposure to online child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world, criminally obscene content and incitement to racial hatred hosted in the UK. Through working closely with the online sector, law enforcement, the government and the public, the IWF aims to foster trust and confidence in the internet among current and future users; assist service providers in combating the abuse of their systems and to assist law enforcement in the fight against online illegal content.
By working with the IWF, Sentry Parental Controls is helping its users to report any potentially illegal content and supporting the work that aims to shut down child sexual abuse sites and prevent access to them, reducing the risk of exposure to this content.
Peter Robbins OBE, QPM, Chief Executive of the IWF, said: “We are delighted to welcome Sentry as a member of the Internet Watch Foundation. Without the support of a diverse industry membership the UK could not maintain its excellent record at providing one of the most hostile online spaces for the hosting of child sexual abuse content. Sentry’s contribution to our work and adherence to our aims and principles denote good industry practice and we look forward to working with them.”
Rebecca Fuchs, founder of Sentry Parental Controls, said: “The IWF do such fantastic work in protecting the online community that it was a natural fit for Sentry to join forces. Becoming members of the IWF only strengthens the work we are doing to protect children online and will help us to move even further forward in the fight against illegal content and monitoring online danger for children.”
-ENDS-
About Sentry Parental Controls
Sentry Parental Controls provides real-time information and alerts to parents allowing them to pro-actively monitor their children's online activities from almost any computer or mobile phone, anywhere in the world.
For further press information please email info@sentryparentalcontrols.co.uk or telephone: 0845 337 3385
IWF is the UK’s internet ‘Hotline’ for the public and IT professionals to report potentially illegal online content within our remit. We work in partnership with the online industry, law enforcement, government, the education sector, charities, international partners and the public to minimise the availability of this content, specifically, child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world and criminally obscene and incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK.
We are an independent self-regulatory body, funded by the EU and the wider online industry, including internet service providers, mobile operators and manufacturers, content service providers, filtering companies, search providers, trade associations and the financial sector as well as other organisations that support us for corporate social responsibility reasons.
We work with UK government to influence initiatives developed to combat online abuse and this dialogue goes beyond the UK and Europe to ensure greater awareness of global issues, trends and responsibilities. We work internationally with INHOPE and other relevant authorities and organisations to encourage wider adoption of good practice in combating online child sexual abuse content and to promote inclusive and united global responses to this dynamic, cross-border criminality.
We help internet service providers and hosting companies to combat abuse of their networks through our national ‘notice and take-down’ service which alerts them to potentially illegal content within our remit on their systems and we provide unique data to law enforcement partners in the UK and abroad to assist investigations into the distributers of potentially illegal online content. As a result of this partnership approach, less than 1% of child sexual abuse content, known to the IWF, has apparently been hosted in the UK since 2003, down from 18% in 1997. As sexually abusive images of children are primarily hosted abroad, we facilitate the industry-led initiative to protect users from inadvertent exposure to this content by blocking access to it through our provision of a dynamic list of child sexual abuse URLs.
We strive to create continued awareness of the role and purpose of the IWF and aim to foster trust and reassurance in the internet for current and future users. Our self-regulatory partnership approach is widely recognised as an effective model in combating the abuse of technology for the dissemination of illegal content.
Please note that "child pornography", "child porn" and "kiddie porn" are not acceptable terms. The use of such language acts to legitimise images which are not pornography, rather, they are permanent records of children being sexually abused and as such should be referred to as child sexual abuse images.
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 237700
media@iwf.org.uk
Created: Thu, September 25th, 2008 | Last Modified: Mon, November 3rd, 2008
