Extension to IWF Hotline service
6 April 2010
In June 2009 the Ministry of Justice asked us to extend our national Hotline to enable the public to report online non-photographic visual depictions of the sexual abuse of children, covered by Sections 62 to 69 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
Following consultation with our Funding Council of industry members, in October 2009 the IWF Board informed government of our agreement to fulfil this role from 6 April 2010.
This means the public can now report non-photographic visual depictions, such as computer-generated images, of the sexual abuse of children to the IWF if they are on a UK website. We will take action to have this content removed, in partnership with the police and the hosting provider, if it is hosted in the UK and is judged to meet all three of the legislative criteria.
Research* carried out on behalf of the IWF in October 2009 showed that 88 per cent of respondents thought such content was illegal or should be if it wasn’t already and 94 per cent believed websites containing computer generated images of child sexual abuse should be removed from the internet.
For more information on the legislation and our role regarding this content please see: http://www.iwf.org.uk/police/page.223.621.htm
* Research carried out by Coleman Parkes in October 2009 to survey the views of 1000 UK adult internet users.
