Funding allows charity to take the online fight to child pornographers

help keyFor the first time, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) – the charity set up to protect children from online exploitation and combat internet child pornography – will begin to identify child abuse images on the internet. The new proactive stance has been made possible after internet service providers (ISPs) collectively provided £1m to tackle the problem. The move was announced by Culture Secretary Maria and reported in the online e-Government Newsletter.

The money came from Virgin Media, BSkyB, BT and TalkTalk, which all signed up to a zero tolerance pledge on child sexual abuse imagery.

Ms Miller said that action had only been taken by the IWF in the past when an image had been reported.

“Now, for the first time, the IWF has been asked to work alongside the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre (Ceop) to search for illegal and abusive images and block them,” she said. “This will mean more images of child sexual abuse will be tracked down and acted against. The abuse of children is absolutely abhorrent – and that child is further violated every single time an image is circulated and viewed.

“The IWF and Ceop already do important and valuable work. This agreement will mean these organisations will no longer be limited to reacting to reports received. They will now have the remit and the resources to take the fight to the criminals perpetrating these vile acts.”

However, resources were not adequate to actually protect children, the former chief executive of Ceop warned. Jim Gamble told BBC Radio 4's PM programme that images were only the symptom and that it was wrong to suggest a child was safeguarded once an image had been removed.

Gamble said a child was not safeguarded until a police officer showed up at the door, arrested the predator in question and rescued the child from the “horror of this abuse”.

Both reports came as a summit between ISPs and the Government led to the companies being held to task for not doing enough to protect children.