Internet Watch Foundation - Awareness Day

The UK's Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) marked its third Awareness Day yesterday (Wednesday 14 October) with the release of new data. More people than ever are using its Hotline to report potentially illegal content on the internet and the UK is leading the way in removing child sexual abuse images.

Despite receiving over 27,000 reports (a 5% increase on the same period last year) only one in five (5742) were confirmed by the IWF as images of child sexual abuse. This figure has been falling for three years suggesting a decrease in the availability of this content. Almost all of these images (over 99% were traced to servers outside the UK. In these circumstances, the IWF acts immediately to inform our partner Hotline and law enforcement agencies in the relevant country to get the images removed and those responsible investigated.

As a result of consistent efforts by the IWF and the internet industry, it is now extremely rare for child sexual abuse images to be on UK websites. When they are, the IWF works in partnership with the hosting provider and the police to have them removed. During the first three quarters of this year, the IWF has issued 25 notices to companies in the UK about the abuse of their networks for the distribution of these images. Each notice was quickly complied with and every identified instance of online child sexual abuse content in the UK was removed within a day of notification.

Eve Salomon, IWF Chair, said: "With the help of our Hotline, the UK has an excellent record in eradicating child sexual abuse images on the internet in partnership with 35 other Hotlines around the world and with the support of our 100 industry members. These websites are reducing in number globally and where they are sited in the UK, they are removed extremely quickly."

"If you stumble across child sexual abuse images, it's crucial you report it to us. We are focussed on the swift removal of these images and helping the international effort to bring those responsible to justice and rescue children from sexual exploitation. Your reports to our Hotline really do make a difference."

IWF Awareness Day is supported by many of the organisation's 100 member companies and partners who unite to help publicise the UK Hotline and the importance of the IWF's work. In 2008, Awareness Day led to increased reporting to the Hotline and an 18% increase in awareness of the IWF amongst UK internet users. The IWF hopes to increase that this year.

To report a website or for more information the about IWF, please visit the IWF website.

If you have any information regarding online abuse this should be reported to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)