Internet Watch Foundation Hotline - Awareness Day::

The UK’s major online brands joined forces on 24th October to publicise the existence of the ‘Hotline’ operated by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) so all UK internet users know what to do if they accidentally stumble across online images of children being sexually abused. The first national IWF Awareness Day, supported by the IWF’s members companies (including eModeration), reached out to the UK’s vast online population to make them aware that the IWF is dedicated to getting this abusive content removed.

Peter Robbins QPM, IWF CEO said: “Our analysts witness the results of terrible sexual abuse being inflicted on very young children around the world and then circulated online. With the help of the online industry, the 28 Hotlines we work with around the world and our law enforcement colleagues, the public can help us to remove these websites and end the abuse that is perpetuated every time the images are viewed.”

Fresh IWF intelligence about these images underlines the importance of this campaign and the industry’s support. Nearly 1 in 3 of the children depicted in sexually abusive images (29 per cent) appear to be under the age of 6, with 1 in 20 appearing to be under the age of 2. 77 per cent of the children in the images are female. New information also shows the severity of abuse images continues to rise with 35 per cent of all child sexual abuse URLs known to the IWF containing the most severe forms of abuse, such as child rape and sexual assault involving sadism and bestiality.

As a result of our work this year we have passed details of 2,092 child sexual abuse websites, of which 80% are commercial operations, to international Hotlines and, via the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) and Interpol, to law enforcement agents around the world for investigation and removal. Often, individual commercial child sexual abuse websites claim to offer many thousands of abusive images and videos for sale.

The UK online industry’s commitment and support of the IWF over the last 10 years has led to the virtual eradication of child sexual abuse content hosted in the UK from 18 per cent in 1997 to less than 1 per cent since 2003, and importantly, on those rare occasions it is found on UK networks, images are removed within hours. These industry and police partnerships have ensured the success which has made the IWF a world leader in combating this horrific content.

Despite this success, the advances in technology and the nature of the internet mean these images can still be accessed from around the world. However, IWF members help to protect internet users from the accidental download of abusive images of children by blocking access to sites on the IWF’s dynamic list of ‘live’ child sexual abuse URLs. The recipients of this list can be found at www.iwf.org.uk/public/page.148.438.htm.

IWF members and stakeholders will be supporting the awareness day by running adverts on their websites and other communications channels, and by emailing their customers with information about our work. We are very grateful for their support in raising awareness of our important work.

* 2007 Ofcom data shows 65% of UK adults (UK adult population is 46 million) have internet access in their home and IWF data suggests 4% of these 30 million have been exposed to online child sexual abuse content.