Brexit and international challenges on agenda for MP visit

Claire Perry MP “impressed” with IWF’s commitment to tacking child sexual abuse images online.

The Devizes MP and campaigner for child online safety visited the offices of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) in Histon, Cambridge.

During her visit, Ms Perry met IWF’s team of content analysts - the experts who identify online child sexual abuse material, assess reports made by the public, and work internationally to get these criminal images removed.

She held discussions with IWF’s CEO Susie Hargreaves OBE, Deputy CEO Fred Langford, and Director of Policy and Public Affairs Kristof Claesen. They talked about:

• The IWF’s latest developments, including its international work setting-up 16 Reporting Portals to help countries where citizens don’t have anywhere to report images and videos of child sexual abuse.
• The challenges ahead including the likely discontinuation of the funding received from the European Commission as a result of Brexit, and the challenges with countries who are abused to host high levels of online child sexual abuse content.

Susie Hargreaves OBE, IWF CEO, says: “We greatly appreciate the support we receive from parliamentarians for our work combating online child sexual abuse content and we were honoured to welcome Claire Perry MP to our offices in Cambridge. Claire has been instrumental for strengthening the fight against this horrendous content, in particular during her work as the Prime Minister’s Special Advisor on Preventing the Commercialisation and Sexualisation of Childhood.”

Ms Perry MP has been a long supporter of the IWF, having become an IWF Champion in 2013. She visited IWF offices on 19 January 2017.

Ends

Notes to editors:

Contact: Emma Hardy, IWF Director of External Relations +44 (0) 1223 203030 or +44 (0) 7929 553679.

A photograph of Claire Perry MP visiting IWF is available upon request.

What we do:

We make the internet a safer place. We help victims of child sexual abuse worldwide by identifying and removing online images and videos of their abuse. We search for child sexual abuse images and videos and offer a place for the public to report them anonymously. We then have them removed. We’re a not for profit organisation and are supported by the global internet industry and the European Commission.

We assesses over 1,000 webpages per week. As a result of our work and self-regulatory model, known child sexual abuse content hosted in the UK has reduced from 18% in 1996 to 0.2% today

For more information please visit www.iwf.org.uk.

The IWF is part of the UK Safer Internet Centre, working with Childnet International and the South West Grid for Learning to promote the safe and responsible use of technology.