Police partners
The IWF is a key component in the UK’s Industry/Police/Government partnership for tackling illegal content online. This partnership has proved extremely successful over the years in facilitating the swift removal of potentially illegal content from UK servers and vastly reducing the overall volume of child abuse images found to be hosted in the UK.
Police Officers provide input into the image assessment element of our training for new hotline Internet Content Analysts, ongoing training of our analysts and the IWF provide technical Internet training for new police staff on occasions.
The IWF has positive links to most British Police Forces, however our main operational contacts are:
- Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)
- Virtual Global Taskforce
- Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)
- The Metropolitan Police Paedophile Unit
- West Midlands Police Hi Tech Crime team
- Greater Manchester Police Abusive Images Unit
- The National Hi-Tech Crime Unit Scotland (NHTCUS)
Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)
Launched in April 2006, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre works across the UK and maximises international links to deliver a holistic approach that combines police powers with the dedicated expertise of business sectors, government, specialist charities and other interested organisations - all focused on tackling child sex abuse wherever and whenever it happens.That means working with parents, young people and children to safeguard their online experiences. It includes direct support to victims and their families and involves the relentless tracking and prosecution of offenders.
Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA)
The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) is a new law enforcement agency created to reduce the harm caused to people and communities in the UK by serious organised crime.SOCA is an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body sponsored by, but operationally independent from, the Home Office.
The Agency has been formed from the amalgamation of the National Crime Squad (NCS), National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), that part of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) dealing with drug trafficking and associated criminal finance and a part of UK Immigration dealing with organised immigration crime(UKIS).
SOCA is an intelligence-led agency with law enforcement powers and harm reduction responsibilities. Harm in this context is the damage caused to people and communities by serious organised crime.
The Home Secretary may set SOCA strategic priorities and will judge the success of its efforts. Within that framework, SOCA plans its priorities, including how it will exercise the functions given to it by statute, and what performance measures it will adopt.
Virtual Global Taskforce
In January 2005 the Virtual Global Taskforce was launched. This is a new web-based initiative involving Law enforcement agencies from across three continents.
It's aim is to deter and prevent individuals from committing child abuse on-line.
The website www.virtualglobaltaskforce.com is part of the international partnership between law enforcement agencies and industry in the UK, Australia, Canada, the US, and Interpol.
This alliance delivers crime prevention and crime reduction initiatives with the aim of making the internet a safer place for children and a more hostile place for paedophiles.
The website will act as a gateway to information on how to use the Internet safely, and will link to a range of support agencies that can advise and support victims of abuse. It will also facilitate the ability of internet users to report on-line child abuse to appropriate law enforcement agencies in a number of different countries.
The aim is for the website to become a “one stop shop” for all information about child protection on-line.
Page Created: Fri, September 3rd, 2004
Page Modified: Fri, April 27th, 2007
