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All children deserve protection from online sexual abuse

We work to stop the repeated victimisation of people abused in childhood, and make the internet a safer place, by identifying & removing global online child sexual abuse imagery.

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IWF Annual Report 2021

In 2021, we assessed a webpage every one-and-a-half minutes. Every two minutes, that webpage showed a child being sexually abused.

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IWF's 25th anniversary

Since 1996, we’ve helped to remove millions of child sexual abuse images and videos from the internet. Find out more about how we've done this and who we've worked with.

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Latest News

The IWF in 2021

361,000 Reports assessed by our team
252,000 Reports confirmed to show child sexual abuse
21%
Increase on reports from the previous year
182000 Number of reports showing self-generated child sexual abuse material

See more of the data and trends from 2021 in our Annual Report

IntelliGrade: Ground-breaking new tech from IWF

IntelliGrade from IWF.

IntelliGrade, from the Internet Watch Foundation, is helping companies and law enforcement bodies to fight back against criminals who trade, store and upload images and videos showing the sexual abuse of children. 

It's is a powerful new tool that enables our analysts to accurately grade child sexual abuse images and videos, and create hashes (digital fingerprints) that are compatible with child sexual abuse laws and classifications in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Interpol Baseline standard.

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Latest news

IWF’s fight to make internet a safer place for children bolstered by new partner

IWF’s fight to make internet a safer place for children bolstered by new partner

Safety tech organisation VerifyMy has joined the Internet Watch Foundation as a new Member, helping to keep the internet free from illegal child sexual abuse content.

7 September 2022 News
Disturbing rise in children between seven and 10 filming their own sexual abuse

Disturbing rise in children between seven and 10 filming their own sexual abuse

Jordan King of Metro, on how the UK is suffering a ‘social and digital emergency’ because of huge spikes in children recording their abuse

3 September 2022 IWF In The News
New episode of Pixels from a Crime Scene Podcast

New episode of Pixels from a Crime Scene Podcast

It can happen in any home

3 September 2022 Blog
IWF CEO, Susie Hargreaves OBE, on Times Radio

IWF CEO, Susie Hargreaves OBE, on Times Radio

Susie speaks to Aasmah Mir about the increase in self-generated child sexual abuse online amongst 7-to-10 year olds

9 August 2022 IWF In The News
3 Ways you can help to protect children online

3 Ways you can help to protect children online

Natterhub's Caroline Allams offers practical tips for parents and carers

9 August 2022 Blog
20,000 reports of coerced ‘self-generated’ sexual abuse imagery seen in first half of 2022 show 7- to 10-year-olds

20,000 reports of coerced ‘self-generated’ sexual abuse imagery seen in first half of 2022 show 7- to 10-year-olds

IWF CEO calls it a social and digital emergency requiring a sustained national prevention effort.

8 August 2022 News