'Wipe it Out' Event Success
As part of the 'Wipe it Out' campaign the IWF hosted a half day conference in Central London on Wednesday 15th June to raise awareness of corporate responsibility regarding indecent images of children which may be found in the workplace on PC's and other corporate electronic devices.
This campaign and event has been designed to:
- Increase awareness of section 46 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and the MoU
- Educate as to how to implement internal company/employee guidelines
- Promote awareness of the IWF and it's role in dealing with indecent images of children
Peter Robbins, CEO, IWF & Home Office Minister, Paul Goggins
Speaking to approximately 50 delegates made up of Senior Managers from organisations from a range of industry sectors, on the importance of addressing child abuse images on the internet & the role of the Government in self regulation & legislation, Home Office Minister Paul Goggins, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Policing, Security and Community Safety recommended organisations 'act with guidance from the IWF' and reiterated that 'any image represents a real child being abused'. He also spoke about the strong solid partnerships between the IWF, Government, Police and Internet industry.
Nigel Hickson, Deputy Director, EU ICT Policy and Regulation, Department of Trade and Industry continued from a Government perspective on why business needs to be concerned about this issue and mentioned praise from Viviane Reding, the new European Commissioner for Information Society and Media for the work of the IWF and other relevant bodies in taking forward this model of self and co-regulation.
DDG, National Crime Squad, Jim Gamble, talked about how unbelievable it was that 74 per cent of companies would turn a blind eye and not tell the police if they caught an employee looking at abusive images of children downloaded from the internet. He commented:
"People need to understand that so we can begin to make the workplace environment hostile for the paedophile who will hide behind your company to collect the images they want to satisfy their sexual motivation.”
Mr Gamble added: “This isn’t about big brother or intrusive surveillance. It’s about whether you want your employees to be downloading pictures of men having sex with babies. I cannot believe any leading company today would adopt the view it is too intrusive."
"You can’t make that judgement, it has to be done by true professionals. This isn't optional. Protect yourself by reporting it to the IWF."
Other speakers included Christine Atkinson from the NSPCC who said the myth that someone who is “only looking” is not doing any harm, must now be exploded.
Mark Gracey, Manager, Internet Content Regulation, THUS plc spoke from an industry point of view and discussed the 'best practice' guide for companies, which he co-wrote with the IWF and is available on the IWF website and includes practical advice regarding preventation and appropriate procedures for dealing with indecent images of children which may be encountered in the work place.
Nick Truman, Head of Internet Security at BT Retail talked about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and gave some insight into how BT addresses the issue of illegal images of children online for their retail customers.
The initial IWF survey of IT Managers showed that 86% of respondents thought CSR was 'very important' to their organisation, yet three quarters of the same respondents wouldn't report an employee caught viewing indecent images of children to the police.
Peter Robbins, IWF CEO said:
" We believe addressing potentially illegal images of children in the workplace is a very important issue which is why this campaign was developed and why we hosted this event.
We sincerely hope the key messages have been heard and understood and we urge organisations to read the best practice guide, put appropriate policies and procedures in place and report any suspect images to us should they encounter them on company networks."
Further queries to: wipeitout@iwf.org.uk
Created: Thu, June 16th, 2005 | Last Modified: Fri, September 30th, 2005
