Who we are
In the UK, the IWF sits at the heart of the national response to combatting the proliferation of indecent images of children. It is an organisation that deserves to be publicly acknowledged as being a vital part of how, and why, comparatively little child sexual abuse material is hosted in the UK.
The IWF maintains exceptional standards in all areas and its practices can be recommended to new or existing hotlines wishing to develop or expand their services. Not only does the IWF operate to an exceptionally high standard in the UK, but its operations and structure in many ways set the standard for other hotlines around the world. It was particularly impressive to gain insight into the adaptability and ongoing evolution of operational procedures at the IWF.
We are a founder member of INHOPE, the International Association of Internet Hotlines, and we made a significant contribution to the former Home Secretary’s Task Force on the Protection of Children on the Internet. Our Chief Executive is a member of the Executive Board of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety and the Global Coalition on Internet Safety of the World Economic Forum. We are also members of various international initiatives such as:
- The Child Online Protection Initiative of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialised agency of the United Nations
- The Commonwealth Cybercrime Initiative (CCI)
- The Cyber Security Programme of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO)
- The European Financial Coalition (EFC) against Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children Online
- The United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) Dynamic Coalition on Child Online Protection
- An organising Committee Member of the United Kingdom’s Internet Governance Forum
- An observer to the Council of Europe’s Lanzarote Committee and CDMSI Steering Committee on Media Information Society
- We have MOUs (memorandum of understanding) with a variety of well-respected and leading international organisations including ECPAT, the International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), AFRALTI and Child Helpline International.
- WeProtect, a worldwide cooperation led by the UK government and supported by over 100 countries, 157 technology companies and NGOs to stop the global crime of online child sexual abuse and exploitation.
Crown Prosecution Service and The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC)
Our status as a relevant authority for reporting, handling, and combating child sexual abuse images on the internet is recognised in a Memorandum of Understanding between the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) linked to Section 46 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Section 46 creates a defence for service providers to secure and retain, for the purposes of prosecution, potentially criminal child sexual abuse content. All these factors are designed to ensure the correct processes are adhered to in order to preserve evidence and to assist any police investigation. Reports made to us in line with our procedures can be referred to in a criminal prosecution.
Assessment of Images
We assess all reports against UK law. This process is backed up by mutual police training; all IWF analysts hold the Nationally Accredited Grader certification run by the National Crime Agency. Images are categorised in line with criteria set out by the UK Sentencing Guidelines Council. Our staff may be called upon to provide evidence in prosecutions relevant to IWF expertise.
Takedown Notices, Content Alerts
The removal of online child sexual abuse images and videos is the core of our work.
Details of every webpage depicting an indecent image of a child are passed to our law enforcement or Hotline partners around the world for further investigation. If the hosting company is a US-based Member of IWF we will issue a Simultaneous Alert so they can work with the relevant police organisation to remove it. On the rare occasion that child sexual abuse imagery is found to be hosted in the UK, we will work in partnership with the police and the hosting company to remove the content and investigate its publishers. We do this through our Takedown Notice Alerts.
We also have a range of other unique services for tech and internet companies which make the internet safer while we are working to remove criminal content.
