Organisation of self-regulation

Name:

Internet Watch Foundation

Based in:

United Kingdom

Type of organisation:

Incorporated charity

Geographical scope:

Europe

Content-related scope:

web

Related areas:

youth protection

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is an organisation in the UK operating an internet ‘Hotline’ for the public and IT professionals to report unwanted exposure to potentially illegal content online.
The aim is to minimise the availability of potentially illegal internet content, specifically:

child sexual abuse images hosted anywhere in the world
criminally obscene content hosted in the UK
incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK

IWF works in partnership with UK Government departments such as the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to influence initiatives and programmes developed to combat online abuse. The dialogue goes beyond the UK and Europe, to ensure greater awareness of global issues and responsibilities.

The Internet Watch Foundation is a self-regulatory body, funded by the EU and the online industry. This includes Internet service providers (ISPs), mobile operators and manufacturers, content service providers, telecommunications and filtering companies, search providers and the financial sector as well as blue-chip and other organisations who support the IWF for corporate social responsibility reasons.

Through the 'Hotline' reporting system, IWF helps ISPs to combat abuse of their services through a ‘notice and take-down’ service by alerting them to any potentially illegal content within our remit on their systems and simultaneously inviting the police to investigate the publisher. In partnership with many organisations they endeavour to raise awareness of the role and purpose of the IWF and aim to encourage trust and reassurance in the Internet for current and future users.

Get more information from this website:
http://www.iwf.org.uk/

Available on the website since April 24, 2008