Remit, Vision and Mission
Remit
To minimise the availability of potentially criminal internet content specifically:
- Images of child sexual abuse* hosted anywhere in the world.
- Criminally obscene adult content hosted in the UK.
- Non-photographic child sexual abuse images hosted in the UK.
If your query relates to an issue outside the IWF's remit please click here.
Vision - Our aspirations
Our vision is the elimination of child sexual abuse images online
Mission - Our role
We use our expertise to work with partners to:
- Disrupt the availability of child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world
- Protect children who are victims of sexual abuse from repeat victimisation and public identification
- Prevent internet users from accidentally stumbling across child sexual abuse content
- Delete criminally obscene adult, and non-photographic child sexual abuse content hosted in the UK.
Objectives – Our goals
We will achieve our vision by:
Building on our work to make the internet free of child sexual abuse images worldwide
This means we will:
- Provide world renowned and trusted Hotline services
- Ensure that child sexual abuse content is taken down globally as soon as possible
- Promote our reporting facility to the public
- Develop innovative tactics and services to minimise the availability of child sexual abuse content globally
- Supply partners with an accurate and current URL list to enable blocking of child sexual abuse content
- Research, analyse and disseminate emerging trends data
- Expand the range and number of our partnerships
Make the UK internet free of criminally obscene adult content, and non-photographic child sexual abuse images
We will achieve this by:
- Providing an excellent and responsive national Hotline reporting service
- Working with partners to ensure potentially criminal content in the UK is taken down expeditiously
Being seen internationally as the best at what we do
We will:
- Enhance our worldwide reputation for effective self-regulation and technical excellence
- Maintain and develop our working relationships with existing and developing Hotlines
- Promote the use of our child sexual abuse URL List abroad
- Be instrumental in influencing policy developments by providing trusted evidence and best practice
- Develop our work with relevant international organisations
- Deliver accurate and comprehensive information about our work
Becoming a centre of excellence in our field
We will do this by:
- Staying ahead in a rapidly changing technical environment
- Providing a first-class, relevant and responsive service to our members
- Supporting law enforcement agencies, and other Hotlines in their work to disrupt the distribution of child sexual abuse images
- Linking up with child protection, social and academic institutions to promote our work
- Maintaining our ISO27001 accreditation
Motivating our staff to use their skills to the full by:
- Supporting the welfare of our employees
- Embedding our values in everything we do
- Achieving Investors in People accreditation
- Promoting a learning environment
*Please note: The IWF uses the term child sexual abuse content to accurately reflect the gravity of the images we deal with. Please note that child pornography, child porn and kiddie porn
are not acceptable terms. The use of such language acts to legitimise
images which are not pornography, rather, they are permanent records of
children being sexually exploited and as such should be referred to as child sexual abuse images. If you see such content online please report them to the IWF.