October 26 2011 is the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) awareness day and coincides with the fifteenth anniversary of the organisation.
The Internet Watch Foundation is the UK internet hotline for the public to report their inadvertent exposure to online child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world, non-photographic child sexual abuse images and criminally obscene adult content hosted in the UK. The IWF are members of the UKCCIS Executive Board.
Many members of UKCCIS already work proactively with the IWF both to reduce the amount of illegal content hosted in the UK and to promote the work and aims of the organisation. If your organisation can help to promote IWF awareness day this year resources including images and web banners can be requested by contacting media@iwf.org.
The IWF was established in 1996 by the UK internet industry and works in partnership with the wider online industry, law enforcement, government, the education sector, charities, international partners and the public to minimise the availability of content within its remit. As a result of this self-regulatory approach, less than 1 per cent of online child sexual abuse content has been hosted in the UK since 2003, down from 18 per cent in 1997.
Through the internet Hotline reporting system, the IWF helps the online industry combat abuse of its services through a ‘notice and takedown’ initiative by alerting them to potentially criminal content within IWF’s remit on their systems and enabling the police to investigate those responsible. This self-regulatory partnership approach is widely recognised as a model of good practice in combating the abuse of technology for the dissemination of criminal online content.
For more information or to report a website, visit the IWF's website.