IWF Status
The IWF is an independent, self-regulatory organisation. We were established in 1996 by the UK internet industry to provide a national internet Hotline for the public and IT professionals to report potentially criminal online content within our remit and to be the 'notice and takedown' body for this content. Our Code of Practice details our role in these take-down procedures. Once informed, the host or internet service provider (ISP) is duty bound under the E-Commerce Regulations (Liability of intermediary service providers) to remove or disable access to the potentially criminal content, expeditiously. We work in partnership with the online industry, law enforcement, government, the education sector, charities, international partners and the public to minimise the availability of potentially criminal child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world, criminally obscene adult content hosted in the UK and non-photographic child sexual abuse images hosted in the UK. (We refer to content as potentially criminal because a definitive legal judgement is a matter for the Courts.)
The IWF is funded by the EU and
member companies from the online industry, including internet service providers
(ISPs), mobile operators, content
providers, hosting providers, filtering companies, search providers,
trade associations and the financial sector. We work together to ensure UK
networks provide a hostile environment for hosting child sexual abuse images
and to protect UK internet users from inadvertent exposure to such content.
We are referenced as a national and international model of self-regulation and are commited to sharing good practice with relevant agencies, authorities and governments around the world. We are a founding member of INHOPE, an association of Hotlines around the world, and we made a significant contribution to the former Home Secretary’s Task Force on the Protection of Children on the Internet. Our Chief Executive is a member of the Executive Board of the UK Council for Child Internet Safety.
IWF status as a relevant authority as regards reporting, handling and combating child sexual abuse images on the internet has been recognised in a Memorandum of Understanding between the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) linked to Section 46 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Section 46 creates a defence for service providers to secure and retain, for the purposes of prosecution, potentially criminal child sexual abuse content. All these factors are designed to ensure the correct processes are adhered to in order to preserve evidence and to assist any police investigation. Reports made to the IWF in line with its procedures can be referred to in a criminal prosecution.