IWF launch new International Reporting Portals across the UK Overseas Territories
Partners in the UK Safer Internet Centre, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), have launched International Reporting Portals across 12 UK Overseas Territories.
The IWF Reporting Portals will provide a quick and easy way for web users in 12 overseas territories to safely and anonymously report online images and videos of child sexual abuse.
The planned roll-out of the IWF Reporting Portal happened simultaneously on the 1st June 2016 in the following 12 UK Overseas Territories:
• Akrotiri and Dhekelia
• Anguilla
• Ascension Islands
• Bermuda
• British Virgin Islands (BVI)
• Cayman Islands
• Gibraltar
• Montserrat
• Pitcairn Islands
• Tristan Da Cunha
• Turks and Caicos
• St Helena
Susie Hargreaves, IWF CEO says: “This is a ground-breaking initiative for us, the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the territories involved. We’re now able to provide a first class Reporting Portal to protect the citizens in each of these territories. Child sexual abuse imagery is a global problem and we can only fight it with a truly global solution.”
What is the IWF Reporting Portal?
By working closely with internet companies, the IWF helps people who stumble across online child sexual abuse images and videos to report them anonymously, via a web-based reporting Hotline.
A team of experienced IWF analysts then work directly with the internet industry and law enforcement, to have the abusive imagery removed quickly.
The advantage of establishing an IWF Reporting Portal is that any reports of suspected online child sexual abuse imagery generated in these territories will be assessed directly by one of IWF’s analysts. These analysts are respected globally for their experience.
The IWF Hotline provides one of the most successful reporting mechanisms in the world. When the charity was founded 20 years ago, 18% of the world’s online child sexual abuse imagery was hosted in the UK. Thanks to IWF analysts, that figure is now 0.2%. These analysts are considered world-leaders for their expertise.
Watch the IWF’s short video which explains what the IWF Reporting Portal is and how it works.