Published: Fri 20 May 2016
Sarah Smith, Technical Researcher with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the charity that works to eliminate child sexual abuse imagery online, was presented with the Churchill medallion at a prestigious biennial award ceremony in London this week (May 18). This was after Sarah successfully completed the Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship.
As part of her Fellowship, Sarah travelled to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, United States and Canada to investigate global strategies for tackling child sexual abuse material online to help shape IWF and UK policy.
Sarah said: “The Fellowship provided a unique opportunity to connect with organisations and individuals worldwide which are united in combatting child sexual abuse material online. The aim was to ensure IWF remains at the forefront of the global fight against this distribution”.
The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust was established shortly after Sir Winston’s death in 1965, as his national memorial and living legacy. Since then it has awarded over 5,250 Travelling Fellowships. Fellowships are awarded to applicants who demonstrate the commitment to travel globally, in pursuit of new and improved ways of tackling a wide range of challenges facing us today. It is hoped that the Fellowships help transform and improve society, for the benefit of others in the UK.
Professor Brian Clarke presented 129 Fellows with medallions at London’s Church House. The venue has significant Churchillian associations(1). He praised the Fellows for their outstanding achievements and said: “I know from personal experience that the Fellowship represents a wonderful opportunity. I am continually amazed and inspired by the Churchill Fellows dedication and commitment to making a difference in so many areas affecting today’s society.”
The IWF welcomes new measures to help make sure digital tools are safe as new data shows AI child sexual abuse is still spreading.
More than nine in ten people in the UK say they are concerned at how images and videos of children being sexually abused are shared through end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messaging services.
