Published: Thu 9 Mar 2017
Daniel Zeichner MP is to learn about the work to remove child sexual abuse content online at a visit to the Cambridge-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) this week (Friday 10 March).
The IWF identifies online child sexual abuse content and works globally to have it removed. Established in 1996, the charity is one of the largest and most effective hotlines in the world identifying and removing online images and videos of child sexual abuse. In 2015, the IWF assessed 68,092 reports as child sexual abuse webpages.
Mr Zeichner will learn how the IWF has built operational partnerships with police, government, civil society organisations, the internet industry and other hotlines around the world to combat the spread of this material. Mr Zeichner will also discover how politicians can take part in the IWF Champions Initiative to raise the profile of the charity.
The visit comes as the IWF won “Innovation of the Year 2016” at the CloudHosting Awards for its Image Hash List. The Image Hash List helps stop the upload, storage and sharing of child sexual abuse images online, and was launched in October 2016. The cutting-edge technology could eliminate millions of images of sexual abuse from the internet and is already being used by top internet companies.
As active part of the UK Safer Internet Centre, the IWF participated in Safer Internet Day on 7 February this year.
Daniel Zeichner MP said: “The IWF does extremely important work in making the internet a safe and secure place. It is leading the way in showing how the voluntary sector can work with industry and law enforcement authorities.”
IWF CEO Susie Hargreaves OBE said: “We’re honoured to welcome Daniel to our offices this week. We greatly appreciate his interest in our work. It’s essential that we keep this issue high on the agenda and being supported by parliamentarians is key to this. I’m looking forward to strengthening our relationship in the future.”
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Contact: Emma Hardy, IWF Director of External Relations +44 (0) 1223 203030 or +44 (0) 7929 553679.
Daniel Zeichner MP will visit IWF at 9am, on Friday 10 March at their office in Histon, Cambridge.
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.
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.
The IWF and NSPCC say tech platforms must do more to protect children online as confirmed sextortion cases soar.
A major 18-month trial project has demonstrated a first-of-its-kind chatbot and warning message can reduce the number of online searches that may potentially be indicative of intent to find sexual images of children.
