Cote d’Ivoire portal is another step in making the internet safer for everyone

A new online portal will, for the first time, give people in Cote d’Ivoire a safe and anonymous place to report online child sexual abuse.

The international charity based in the UK, the Internet Watch Foundation, has today (September 17) launched a new reporting portal giving people in Cote d’Ivoire a tool to report child sexual abuse material should they stumble across it online.

The portal is available in two languages – French and English – helping more people to easily report material if they see it online. It can be accessed at https://report.iwf.org.uk/ci.

The IWF is the UK-based international charity responsible for finding and removing images and videos of child sexual abuse from the internet.

Once reported through the new portal, images and videos will be assessed by trained IWF analysts in the UK.

If they are found to contain child sexual abuse, they can be blocked and removed from the internet.

The IWF worked with the Autorité de Régulation des Télécommunications/TIC Cote d’Ivoire (Telecommunications Regulator/TIC Cote d’Ivoire), in the Cote d’Ivoire government to get the portal set up.

The partnership has been crucial in helping to bring together representatives from law enforcement, local charities and NGOs, internet industry giants and other government ministries, which supported the launch during the round table celebrating the launch.

Susie Hargreaves OBE, Chief Executive of the IWF, said: “This is an important step in making the internet a safer place for everybody, wherever they are in the world.

“Whenever these images and videos are circulated, the victims are harmed all over again. Children can not move on, even after the abuse has ended, because they know these videos are out there and are still being shared.

“The children in these videos are real children. They are real victims, and anyone sharing them must know they are fueling the demand which is causing this abuse in the first place.”

Bile Diemeleou, General Director of ARTCI said: "To make the internet a safe tool for learning and innovation for children and teenagers represents a crucial challenge in our information society’s development strategy.

"We have to work relentlessly towards the convergence of efforts from all the relevant actors in order to propose a secure cyberspace, guaranteeing the protection of children and favouring the strengthening of digital trust"

Aman Vladimir, Manager for CI-CERT, ARTCI said: "The current context reminds us the extent to which the internet is an almost vital development tool in our modern society.

"It is our duty to actively contribute to transforming it into a real learning, discovery and innovation means for our children by offering the necessary security and protection guarantees."

This is the IWF’s 42nd IWF Reporting Portal. It is the 19th to be set up in Africa, and the 24th Global Fund sponsored portal to launch.

IWF portals are now available around the world in 17 languages (Arabic, English, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Kazakh, Lingala, Malaysian, Mongolian, Nepali, Pashto, Portuguese, Spanish, Swahili, Ukrainian, Urdu, Wolof).

Notes to editors:

Contact:

Josh Thomas, IWF Press Officer [email protected] +44 (0) 7377 727058

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.

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 works globally to stop child sexual abuse imagery on the internet. If you ever stumble across a sexual image or video of someone you think is under 18, please report to the IWF. Reporting can be done anonymously and confidentially – we don’t need your details, just your help.