INTERNET AND TELECOMS INDUSTRY, CHARITIES AND GOVERNMENT BACK IWF AWARENESS DAY

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) underlined the importance of its Awareness Day today with the release of new research * which indicates that over three quarters (77%) of UK adult internet users who have stumbled across images of children being sexually abused are unsure how to report them. In addition, 71% of those surveyed ranked the availability of online child sexual abuse images as their top concern about the Internet.

So to help raise awareness of the IWF?s national reporting service, major online brands including internet service providers, mobile operators, social networking sites, online gaming companies, moderators, registries, filtering companies and search engines as well as IWF partners, charities and government departments are joining forces to publicise the IWF 'Hotline' on 24 October. Supporting activities include running IWF advertising across websites, emailing staff and customers and featuring IWF information on homepages and intranets in order to reach out to millions of UK internet users.

Peter Robbins OBE, QPM, IWF Chief Executive , said: "The UK has a very proactive approach to tackling child sexual abuse content online but we could do even more with the public's help. That is why so many organisations are taking part in this campaign today to reach millions of people and raise awareness of our ?Hotline? service. Internet consumers should know that if they do stumble across these images then it's vital to report them to the IWF; we have international partnerships in place to get these websites removed. The IWF members and supporters who are united in their efforts to try to eradicate these terrible images on the internet deserve all our thanks."

99% of adult internet users in the UK agree that the internet is an overwhelmingly positive resource in everyday life and half of UK internet users are aware the UK has been successful in combating online child sexual abuse content. This UK approach sees the IWF working in partnership with the online sector and the police and has led to the near eradication of child sexual abuse content hosted in the UK. Initiatives like the voluntary blocking in the UK of child sexual abuse websites by online companies are helping to reduce inadvertent access to content hosted abroad, indeed, 2007 saw a 10% decrease in the number of websites confirmed by the IWF to depict child sexual abuse.

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* Research of 1000 UK adult internet users was carried out during September and October 2008