Internet Watch Foundation

New research suggests 1 in 20 UK adult internet users or 1.5 million people have been exposed to online images of children being sexually abused *

 

The UK’s major online brands are joining forces on Wednesday 24 October to publicise the existence of the ‘Hotline’ operated by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) so all UK internet users know what to do if they accidentally stumble across online images of children being sexually abused. The first national IWF Awareness Day, supported by the IWF’s members companies, is reaching out to the UK’s vast online population to make them aware that the IWF is dedicated to getting this abusive content removed.

  

Peter Robbins QPM, IWF CEO said: “Our analysts witness the results of terrible sexual abuse being inflicted on very young children around the world and then circulated online. With the help of the online industry, the 28 Hotlines we work with around the world and our law enforcement colleagues, the public can help us to remove these websites and end the abuse that is perpetuated every time the images are viewed.”

 

Fresh IWF intelligence about these images underlines the importance of this campaign and the industry’s support. Nearly 1 in 3 of the children depicted in sexually abusive images (29 per cent) appear to be under the age of 6, with 1 in 20 appearing to be under the age of 2. 77 per cent of the children in the images are female. New information also shows the severity of abuse images continues to rise with 35 per cent of all child sexual abuse URLs known to the IWF containing the most severe forms of abuse, such as child rape and sexual assault involving sadism and bestiality.

 

As a result of our work this year we have passed details of 2,092 child sexual abuse websites, of which 80% are commercial operations, to international Hotlines and, via the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and Interpol, to law enforcement agents around the world for investigation and removal. Often, individual commercial child sexual abuse websites claim to offer many thousands of abusive images and videos for sale.

 

The UK online industry’s commitment and support of the IWF over the last 10 years has led to the virtual eradication of child sexual abuse content hosted in the UK from 18 per cent in 1997 to less than 1 per cent since 2003, and importantly, on those rare occasions it is found on UK networks, images are removed within hours. These industry and police partnerships have ensured the success which has made the IWF a world leader in combating this horrific content.

 

Despite this success, the advances in technology and the nature of the internet mean these images can still be accessed from around the world. However, IWF members help to protect internet users from the accidental download of abusive images of children by blocking access to sites on the IWF’s dynamic list of ‘live’ child sexual abuse URLs. The recipients of this list can be found at www.iwf.org.uk/public/page.148.438.htm.

IWF members and stakeholders will be supporting the awareness day by running adverts on their websites and other communications channels, and by emailing their customers with information about our work. We are very grateful for their support in raising awareness of our important work.

 

The day will be followed by a series of regional roadshows aimed at professionals involved in this area of work, with delegates including parliamentarians, teachers, child protection workers, police, local authorities, industry representatives, and IT professionals. Further details of the events can be found here: http://www.iwf.org.uk/media/page.80.htm.

  

* 2007 Ofcom data shows 65% of UK adults (UK adult population is 46 million) have internet access in their home and IWF data suggests 4% of these 30 million have been exposed to online child sexual abuse content.  

 

 

For interviews or further information please contact:

Bill McIntyre or Vicki Harding, iris PR t: 020 7654 7987/020 7694 7926, e: info@iris-pr.com 

Sarah Robertson, IWF Communications, t: 01223 237700, m: 07929 553 679, e: sarah@iwf.org.uk

 

  

The Protection of Children Act 1978 as amended in the Sexual Offences Act 2003, makes it an offence to take, make, permit to be taken, distribute, show, possess with intent to distribute, and advertise indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children under the age of 18. The ‘making’ of such images includes downloading, that is, making a copy of a child abuse image on a computer, so, in the UK, deliberately accessing such content online is a serious criminal offence. 

 

It is an offence to actively seek out images of child sexual abuse on the internet and to do so in order to report to the IWF is not a defence in court. However, if you have inadvertently stumbled upon such content you should report it to our 'Hotline' www.iwf.org.uk/reporting.htm.

 

The IWF has provided 9 evidential statements to police with 5 more pending, and 119 intelligence reports to UK police for investigation in 2007

The terms "child pornography" or "child porn" can 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.

 

 

The IWF is the only recognised organisation in the UK operating an internet ‘Hotline’ for the public and IT professionals to report their exposure to potentially illegal content online specifically:

We work in partnership with UK Government departments such as the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to influence initiatives and programmes developed to combat online abuse. This dialogue goes beyond the UK and Europe, to ensure greater awareness of global issues and responsibilities.

We are a self-regulatory body, funded by the EU and the wider online industry, including internet service providers (ISPs), mobile operators and manufacturers, content service providers, telecommunications and filtering companies, search providers and the financial sector as well as blue-chip and other organisations who support us for corporate social responsibility reasons.

 

Through the ‘Hotline’ reporting system, we help ISPs to combat abuse of their services through a ‘notice and take-down’ service by alerting them to any potentially illegal content on their systems and simultaneously inviting the police to investigate the publisher.

 

We also provide a comprehensive list of websites containing child sexual abuse content to organisations such as ISPs, mobile network operators, software companies and search providers to filter out potentially illegal child sexual abuse content.