Celebrating the people that make IWF great - Pip: The children we see have been robbed of their right to an innocent childhood – we never forget that

Quality assurance is naturally important to all organisations, but here at the IWF it’s vital – we want to assure victims of child sexual abuse that the assessments made by our analysts are, and continue to be, world-leading. 

We have a small but dedicated team of Quality Assurance Officers who act as ‘critical friends’ to our amazing team of Hotline analysts. As Compliance Officer I’m privileged to lead this team in their work. 

The QAs are keenly aware of what a challenging and unique job our highly trained analysts do. They provide an independent eye over reports which means that they review all aspects of the assessments made by our analysts. Key to this is ensuring that the illegal child sexual abuse pictures and videos are categorised correctly in line with UK law, and that age determinations are accurate.

This internal monitoring provides added assurance to our Members and partners in respect of our collaborative work and services, but ultimately ensures we’re doing the right thing by the victims we see each and every day, 

In my role as Compliance Officer I also oversee our information security management system to make sure we retain ‘ISO 27001’ Standard certification. Information security has never been as hot a topic as it is right now – we’re in an exciting time of technological innovation but with that can come uncertainty, potential exploitation and new laws and regulations. Being certified to ISO 27001 is evidence of our commitment to the security of the information and technology we’re harnessing in our fight against those who share (and in some cases profit) from the spread of online child sexual abuse material. 

My team and I are provided with the same level of welfare support as our Hotline colleagues which includes monthly counselling and an annual psychological assessment. Given the nature of what we see in carrying out our work, it’s crucial that we too continue to maintain the resilience to cope with it. 

The children we see day in and day out online have been robbed of their right to a carefree, and innocent childhood – we never forget that - it spurs the whole team on to keep going. I feel incredibly fortunate to work with such a compassionate and dedicated team of people.