Internet Watch Foundation:
Annual Report 2017
The IWF Annual Report is a record of our actions against online child sexual abuse imagery during 2017. We hope this tool will inform, educate and encourage people around the world to join us in this important work.
4 minutes
We assess a webpage every four minutes.
7 minutes
Every seven minutes, that webpage shows a child being sexually abused.
1.0
Last year we processed more
reports than ever before.
IWF’s mission is to analyse these reports to identify and remove any confirmed instances of child sexual abuse.
How has the number of instances changed since 2016?
Slide the 
along the scale to predict what the percentage change was from last year
To see the 2017 percentage change figure please submit your prediction
In 2017: We processed 132,636
reports (26% increase on 2016)
came from the public
were proactively sourced
One report could contain one, or thousands of images and videos. Here’s the breakdown:
of age
Percent of children appearing to be aged:
of severity
Percent of images:
of gender
Percent of images where victims were:
- We identified more than 80,000 instances of child sexual abuse imagery – our biggest year on record.
- Public reporting, and the accuracy of those reports to us, are at an all-time high. More reports than ever before have been sent to us by the public, and these have accurately identified child sexual abuse imagery on 35% of occasions (this includes duplicate reporting where multiple people report the same content).
- An increasing amount of child sexual abuse imagery is being hosted in Europe, rather than North America – the trend continues from 2016 and the gap widens.
- More domain names than ever before are being used to show children being sexually abused – a 57% increase on last year.
- Less than 1% of child sexual abuse imagery continues to be hosted in the UK.
- We saw an 86% increase in the use of disguised websites. These are websites where the child sexual abuse imagery will only be revealed to someone who has followed a pre-set digital pathway – to anyone else, they will be shown legal content.
- Some UK-based hosting companies whose services are being abused to host child sexual abuse imagery are getting a ‘free ride’. 15 companies’ services in the UK were abused to host child sexual abuse images or videos during 2017. 14 of these are not IWF Members, however we helped them clean up the abuse by issuing takedown notices. Just one IWF Member’s service was abused in the UK.
January
Winner: Harriet Lester, our Technical Projects Officer, is named Rising Star of the Year at the world’s largest technology diversity event – the Women in IT Awards.
Image: Harriet Lester, IWF Technical Projects Officer
Image: Susie Hargreaves receives OBE from HRH Prince Charles
March
Young stars: Everton FC team up with the UK Safer Internet Centre to launch a unique educational project called Game On, aimed at teaching young men about the importance of appropriate online behaviour and online safety.
OBE: Susie Hargreaves receives her OBE from HRH Prince Charles.
April
60% in Europe: IWF releases its 2016 Annual Report revealing a shift in where the majority of child sexual abuse imagery is found, moving from North America to the Netherlands.
Image: Screen shot of IWF 2016 Annual Report
May
ISPA Finalist: Susie, our CEO, is an Executive of the Year award finalist at
the 2017 annual ISPA awards.
Double win: We are named Charity of the Year and Fred Langford, IWF Deputy CEO, is chosen as a finalist of Digital Leader of the Year in the 2017 Digital Leaders 100 list.
Image: Susie Hargreaves OBE, IWF CEO
Image: Fred Langford, IWF Deputy CEO
June
Namibia: We launch Namibia’s first portal for its citizens to report child
sexual abuse images and videos.
More than 9 million reached on social media: The ground-breaking
Indecent Images of Children (IIOC) campaign is launched in collaboration
with HM Government, the IWF, the NSPCC and the Marie Collins
Foundation, to promote a safer use of the internet to men aged 18-24.
Video: Indecent Images of Children (IIOC) campaign
Image: Julian David, CEO, TechUK receiving IWF Award
September
Winner: IWF wins the Public Sector Excellence Award by the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) at their 2017 Global ICT Excellence Awards, after being nominated by techUK.
October
Pope Francis: Susie Hargreaves OBE meets Pope Francis at the Vatican while attending the 'Child Dignity in the Digital World' Congress.
Image: Susie Hargreaves OBE, IWF CEO, meeting Pope Francis
Image: IWF is setting up Reporting Portals in 30 of the world’s least developed countries
November
Winner: Aarambh wins India’s National Award for Child Welfare 2017 for their work on the Online National Resource Centre aarambhindia.org, including the Internet Hotline provided by the IWF.
3 Finalist Awards: Our Game On workshops with Everton FC are finalists for three awards: The Innovation Award at the Football Business Awards; the Best Club Marketing Sponsors and Engagement at the Northwest Football Awards, and the Best Partnership at the CorpComms Magazine Awards.
US$448,875: We announce a grant from the Fund to End Violence Against Children and launched Tanzania’s first reporting portal for child sexual abuse imagery – another 29 portals will be launched under the grant.
December
7 Minutes: Susie speaks to University of Cambridge students at the Cambridge Union in a lively debate about social media.
2nd Award: Harriet Lester wins a second award and is named in the TechWomen50 2017 awards list. The award honours women in the tech industry and recognises the impact of female champions and IT leaders.
Home Secretary: Susie and our Chair, Sir Richard Tilt, meet Home Secretary Amber Rudd to discuss the global fight against child sexual abuse imagery.
Image: Susie Hargreaves OBE speaks at the Cambridge Union
We are the global experts at tackling child sexual abuse images on the internet, wherever they are hosted in the world. We offer a safe and anonymous place for anyone to report these images and videos to us and we’re delivering Reporting Portals to countries across the world.
Through the support of our Members, who are international internet companies, our collaboration with 48 hotlines in 42 countries, and law enforcement partners globally, we excel in finding and removing these images.
The children in these horrific pictures and videos are real. Knowing their suffering has been captured and shared online can haunt a victim for life. Eliminating these images is our mission.
Internet companies are being asked to demonstrate their commitment and leadership by creating a safer online world. Our Members fund our work and use our unique services to make sure their networks are safe. By working hand in hand with us, they make it harder for criminals to share, host, and sell images of children being sexually abused. They show the world how they do the right thing.
Do the right thing – report online child sexual abuse imagery to iwf.org.uk
4.0
Welcome from Sir Richard Tilt,
IWF Chair, 2011-2017
Welcome to our 2017 Annual Report, which gives the latest data on what’s happening globally to tackle online child sexual abuse imagery and the role that the IWF plays. The IWF identifies and removes online images and videos of child sexual abuse. In 2017 our team assessed a webpage every four minutes. Every seven minutes that webpage showed a child being sexually abused.
2017 also marked the end of my term as Chair of the IWF following six years of working closely with the team and watching them grow in size and reputation. I am grateful to the other Trustees and staff team for all their service during this time. The IWF, rightly in my opinion, can call itself one of the world’s leading hotlines in terms of its effectiveness. The challenge of eliminating child sexual abuse online is a huge one, and one that will be extremely difficult to achieve, but this doesn’t stop the team doing everything they can to meet this challenge. They are never complacent and are always looking for new ways to fight the problem, because they know that behind every single image, is a real child who has been sexually abused, and for every minute that image is available online, that child is being revictimised.
I want to pay particular tribute to the team of Analysts who do one of the most difficult jobs imaginable. They are very special people to whom we all owe a huge debt of gratitude.
Leading the IWF as Chair has been a genuine privilege and I leave with a sad heart but
knowing that I leave it in the safe hands of my successor Andrew Puddephatt, to whom,
I wish the very best.
4.1
From Susie Hargreaves OBE, IWF CEO
Once again our Hotline has broken new records in the number of webpages of child sexual abuse we have removed from the internet, but we are not complacent.
In 2018 we plan to work even harder to locate, disrupt and remove images and videos as quickly and efficiently as we can.
To do this incredible work, we need incredible people, and we need to look after them.
Our work isn’t possible without the support of the internet industry – our Members. We’re funded by some of the biggest global names on the internet. Many of them not only provide us with our funding, but they give us their time, expertise, and technical resources to build leading technology to help us with our mission. You can read about some of the technical developments we’ve worked on in this report.
We encourage you to use our annual report as a reference and information tool on the global picture of child sexual abuse imagery. Our statistics and trends detail how much of this imagery we identify, where it’s hosted, which sorts of internet sites are most abused, and which trends we’re monitoring.
For instance, in 2016 we reported a shift in where we saw the most child sexual abuse imagery being hosted. It moved from North America, to Europe. In 2017 the gap widened and now we see Europe hosting an ever-increasing amount of this content.
We identified, and removed, more than 80,000 webpages and newsgroup posts of child sexual abuse images and videos – the biggest number since we were founded.
Despite seeing more criminal imagery in 2017 than any other year, encouragingly, the public has also made more reports to us than ever before. Building on this, we’re also setting up Reporting Portals in 30 of the world’s poorest countries, meaning by 2019, citizens in 48 countries and territories will be able to report suspect content to us. Also, our exceptional staff, and projects, have been nominated, and won, some incredible awards.
We live in a time when the internet, and internet companies, are being scrutinised in relation to undesirable, harmful, and criminal content. Our mission is the elimination of child sexual abuse imagery from the internet, and for over 21 years we’ve done this as a self-regulatory body in partnership with the industry. More than ever before we can see that this works and through 2018 we’ll be looking at how we can be more transparent about our actions, and those of our Members.
We’ve got some exciting technological developments to launch and refine this year which we believe will have a real impact on furthering our mission and I’m looking forward to telling you about these in our next annual report.
5.0
From the Prime Minister: The Rt Hon Theresa May MP
I want to pay tribute to the crucial work of the Internet Watch Foundation and their partnership with industry, law enforcement and the Government in identifying and removing illegal child sexual abuse images from the internet. We will continue to work together to tackle this ever-evolving threat and to pursue our target of making the UK the safest place in the world to go online.
This year has been one where the threat our children face, the generation and spread of online sexual abuse,
continues to grow. We want to see
Britain as the safest place to be online
and the Internet Watch Foundation’s
work is critical to our efforts to make
this possible, efforts to which they bring
twenty-one years of expertise and an
ability to describe the changing nature
of the threat with authority.
The IWF are global leaders in the
proactive identification and removal of
illegal child sexual abuse imagery.
They are a key partner of the
WePROTECT Global Alliance and are
sharing hashes derived from the UK’s
world leading Child Abuse Image
Database with six major technology
partners, to speed up their identification
and removal.
I am encouraged that more of the public
recognise child abuse material when
they see it and are confident enough to
report it, reflected in the statistics in this
report. This demonstrates the success of
the partnership between the Internet
Watch Foundation and others, to
encourage reporting this heinous
material and to ultimately secure its
removal.
But there is clearly more that we need to
do, with a worrying rise in material
hosted in Europe, and the ever-evolving
nature of offending as offenders exploit
new vulnerabilities in the online
environment to evade detection. We will
continue to work together in our efforts
to rise to this challenge and to evolve
with it as we look to ensure the UK’s
response remains as strong as it can
possibly be.
Our annual report gives the latest data on what is happening globally to tackle child sexual abuse images and videos online. We encourage anyone working in this area to use our statistics to help inform their valuable work.
In 2017, we assessed a webpage every 4 minutes. Every 7
minutes, that webpage showed a child being sexually abused.
People report to us at iwf.org.uk, or through one of the 19 portals
around the world, in multiple languages. All reports come to our
headquarters in the UK. We also actively search the internet for
child sexual abuse imagery. For every such image or video we
identify, we assess the severity of the abuse, the age of the
child/children and the location of the files.
Select a statistic, use left and right arrow to navigate
to next statistic or return to menu:
Total number of reports processed
132,636 reports were processed by IWF analysts in 2017, a 26% increase on the 2016 figure of 105,420. Please be aware that not all reports we process are found to contain criminal imagery within our remit.
Child sexual abuse imagery on URLs
Child sexual abuse imagery on newsgroups
571 newsgroups were confirmed as containing child sexual abuse imagery.
All child sexual abuse URLs analysed by IWF
Since 2014 we have seen a gradual drop in the percentage of children we assess as being aged 10 or younger. However, where we do see child sexual abuse imagery of younger children, it is more likely to show the most severe forms of abuse, including rape and sexual torture.
We increasingly see more imagery of 11-15 year olds in what is termed “self-produced” content created using webcams and then shared online. This can have serious repercussions for young people and we take this trend very seriously. We have looked into this before and will be launching a new report focusing on online child sexual abuse imagery captured from webcam live-streams early in 2018.
Domain analysis
78,589 URLs contained child sexual abuse imagery and 3,791 domain names worldwide were used to create links to this content. This is a 57% increase from 2,416 domain names in 2016.
For domain analysis purposes, the webpages of iwf.org.uk, iwf.org.uk/report, and iwf.org.uk/what-we-do are counted as one domain: iwf.org.uk
The websites containing child sexual abuse content were registered across 152 top level domains.
Domain names
Our Domain Alerts help our Members in the domain registration sector prevent abuse of their services by criminals attempting to create domains dedicated to distribution of child sexual abuse imagery.
Several well-established domains including .com and .biz are known as “Generic Top Level Domains” (gTLDs). Since 2014, many more gTLDs have been released to meet a requirement for enhanced competition and consumer choice in domain names, often in specific categories of content.
In 2015, we first saw these new gTLDs being used to link to child sexual abuse imagery. Many of these new gTLD registrations were dedicated to illegal imagery and had apparently been registered specifically for this purpose.
New gTLDs being used for the distribution of child sexual abuse imagery continues to be a rising trend in 2017.
This is due in part to a rising trend amongst commercial distributors, particularly distributors of “disguised websites,” to register individual domain names for use on their dedicated websites rather than using the services of free-hosting websites.
Which types of sites are abused the most?
Image hosting sites and cyberlockers were abused significantly more than other services.
Social networks were among the least abused site types.
We have also seen an increase in the number of banner sites used to distribute commercial child sexual abuse imagery.
Image hosting sites and cyberlockers were abused significantly more than other services.
We have also seen an increase in the number of banner sites used to distribute commercial child sexual abuse imagery.
Social networks were among the least abused site types.
In 2017, 72,343 URLs (92%) were hosted on a free-to-use service where no payment was required to create an account or upload the content. In the remaining 8% of cases, the content was hosted on a paid-for service, or it was not possible to tell whether the hosting was free or paid for.
Global hosting of child sexual abuse images
In 2016, we saw that for the first time the majority of child sexual abuse webpages assessed by our analysts were hosted in Europe, which was a shift from North America. This trend continued in 2017, with 65% of child sexual abuse content hosted in Europe. 32% was hosted in North America.
In 2017, 20 webpages containing child sexual abuse imagery were hosted in Africa. Images and videos hosted in Australasia, South America and in hidden services totalled less than 1% of all confirmed child sexual abuse content in 2017.
Top five countries
87% of all child sexual abuse URLs we identified globally in 2017 were hosted in these five countries:
Hidden Services
Hidden services are websites hosted within proxy networks – sometimes also called the dark web. These websites are challenging as the location of the hosting server cannot be traced in the normal way.
We work with the National Crime Agency (NCA) Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Command to provide intelligence on any new hidden services which are displaying child sexual abuse imagery. With this intelligence, NCA-CEOP can work with national and international law enforcement agencies to investigate the criminals using these websites.
We have also seen an increase in “commercial” hidden services – dedicated websites offering child sexual abuse imagery for sale.
Hidden services commonly contain hundreds or even thousands of links to child sexual abuse imagery that is hosted on image hosts and cyberlockers on the open web. We take action to remove the child sexual abuse imagery on the open web. Our analysts also add child sexual abuse images and videos hosted in hidden services to the IWF Hash List, helping to prevent wider distribution on the open web. Monitoring trends in the way offenders use hidden services to distribute child sexual abuse imagery also helps us when we are searching for this imagery online.
UK hosting of child sexual abuse imagery
The UK hosts a small volume of online child sexual abuse content. When we started in 1996, the UK hosted 18% of the global total – in 2017 this figure was just 0.3%.
The UK hosts a small volume of online child sexual abuse content.
In 2017, 274 URLs displaying child sexual abuse imagery were hosted in the UK, an increase from 64 URLs in 2016.
URLs displaying child sexual abuse imagery
The main reason for this increase was that a group of dedicated child sexual abuse websites, apparently associated with a single commercial distributor, was repeatedly uploaded to a UK hosting company. This group of dedicated websites accounted for 221 of the 274 UK-hosted URLs in 2017. We worked closely with the UK host to ensure the content was removed quickly, often within minutes of notification. Since October, we have not seen these websites being hosted in the UK.
Actions and takedown notices in 2017
We took action on 274 webpages hosting images and videos in the UK and issued 32 takedown notices. We might send one notice for several webpages and content may have already been removed by the time we get authorisation from the police.
UK child sexual abuse content removal in minutes
In partnership with the online industry, we work quickly to push for the removal of child sexual abuse content hosted in the UK. The ‘take down’ time clock ticks from the moment we issue a takedown notice to the hosting company to the time the content is removed.
Although the URL numbers are relatively small compared to the global problem, it is important the UK remains a hostile place for criminals to host this content.
IWF URL List
We provide a list of webpages with child sexual abuse images and videos hosted abroad to companies who want to block or filter them for their users’ protection, and to prevent repeat victimisation. We update the list twice a day, removing and adding URLs.
During 2017, the list was sent across all seven continents.
The IWF Image Hash List
Each image can be given a unique code, known as a hash. A hash is like a digital fingerprint of an image. IWF creates hashes of the child sexual abuse content we see and we add these to our Hash List. The list of these hashes can be used to find duplicate images. This makes us more efficient at what we do. It also means the Hash List could stop the sharing, storage and even the upload of child sexual abuse content.
During 2017, we added 130,671 hashes to our Hash List.
Of the hashes connected to individual images, a quarter of them related to the worst forms of abuse.
At the end of 2017, the list contained hashed relating to 295,389 individual images
This means that in 2017, our analysts reviewed 10,889 images each, alongside reviewing public reports, and actively searching for child sexual abuse images and videos.
Newsgroups
Our Hotline team monitors the content of newsgroups and issues takedown notices for individual postings of child sexual abuse imagery. We also provide a Newsgroup Alert to Members, which is a notification of child sexual abuse content hosted on newsgroup services so they can be removed.
We are one of only a handful of hotlines in the world that processes reports on newsgroups.
Throughout 2017, we monitored and reviewed newsgroups and issued takedown notices.
We processed 1,852 reports alleging child sexual abuse images hosted within newsgroups.
After monitoring newsgroups, we recommended our Members do not carry 344 newsgroups containing child sexual abuse images and videos.
Disguised websites
Since 2011, we have been monitoring commercial child sexual abuse websites which display child sexual abuse imagery only when accessed by a “digital pathway” of links from other websites. When the pathway is not followed, or the website is accessed directly through a browser, legal content is displayed.
This means it is more difficult to locate and investigate the illegal imagery.
When we first indentified this technique, we developed a way of revealing the illegal imagery, meaning we could remove the content and the websites could be investigated. But the criminals continually change how they hide the illegal imagery, so we adapt in response.
In 2017, we uncovered 2,909 websites using this method to hide child sexual abuse imagery, an increase of 86% on the 1,572 disguised websites identified in 2016.
All 2,909 of the disguised websites dedicated to distribution of child sexual abuse imagery we took action against in 2017 were using a domain name which had apparently been registered specifically for this purpose.
Disguised websites continue to be a significant and increasing problem. By sharing our expertise in uncovering these websites with our sister hotlines and law enforcement worldwide, we help disrupt the operation of commercial child sexual abuse websites.
Commercial child sexual abuse material
We define commercial child sexual abuse imagery as images or videos which were seemingly produced or being used for the purposes of financial gain by the distributor.
In 2015, we assessed 21% of the webpages containing child sexual abuse imagery as commercial. Since then, we have seen a decline. We believe this is due in part to changing methods used by criminals to evade detection, such as the increase in disguised websites.
In addition to taking action to have these websites removed, we also capture payment information displayed on these websites, enabling us to provide alerts to our Members in the financial industry to prevent the misuse of the services and further disrupt distribution of the imagery.
Web brands
Our Website Brands Project started in 2009. Since then, we have been tracking the different “brands” of dedicated child sexual abuse websites.
These dedicated commercial websites are constantly moving their location to evade detection and our analysts see the same websites appearing on many different URLs over time. Since the project began, we have identified 4,006 unique website brands.
Our ongoing analysis of hosting patterns, registration details and payment information indicates that the majority of these dedicated websites are operated by a small number of criminal groups. In 2017, the top 20 most prolific brands were apparently associated with just five distribution groups.
This year, we have identified changes in the methods used by commercial distributors to create their websites. Increasingly, the names and titles of these websites are dynamic, meaning that they change each time the page is reloaded. This has resulted in a large increase in the number of active “brands” selling child sexual abuse imagery.
In 2017, we saw 1,624 active brands, compared to 766 in 2016.
Of these active brands, 1,263 were previously unknown to us, compared to 573 in 2016.
We will continue to monitor trends and work closely with law enforcement partners and our financial industry Members to ensure the commercial distribution of child sexual abuse imagery is disrupted.
Return to statistic menuWe are constantly innovating our techniques and developing our technology and the services we offer to the internet industry with the aim of eliminating online child sexual abuse content.
The IWF Tech Team: Bino Joseph, Harriet Lester, Fred Langford, Sarah Smith, Evgeni Paunov
Hash List
First launched in 2015 as a pilot, our Image Hash List of ‘digital fingerprints’ of child sexual abuse
had grown to more than 295,000 individual images by the end of 2017.
In 2017, funded by Microsoft and using PhotoDNA technology, we developed a tool to enable
us to extract digital fingerprints of videos. This complex technical development is leading the way
in helping us, and our Members, identify and remove videos of child sexual abuse.
Bespoke reporting system
We have always used a custom-built report management system (RMS) to receive, process and action reports into our hotline. This year we’ve developed version four, to be launched mid 2018.
- It ensures:
- We capture as much detail as possible about child sexual abuse imagery online;
- That our analysts’ welfare is safeguarded as far as possible, and
- That it’s as simple as possible to gather statistics and trends for analysis.
Due to launch in 2018, we’ll offer our Members the ability to directly report suspect URLs into RMS, and therefore become an extension to their own abuse teams.
We are supported by more than 130 Members across the globe. You can see who they are, and the contribution they make here.
Our Members provide us with financial and technical resources,
and we provide them with a suite of services to help keep their
users safe and to prevent the re-victimisation of children whose
sexual abuse images are shared online.
You can find out about how we’ve been able to help our
Members provide safer services here.
IWF Reporting Portals
Image: IWF received a grant from the Global Fund to End Violence Against Children enabling us to deliver a further 30 portals in the least developed countries.
People all over the world should be able to report online child sexual abuse images and videos. In 2013 we launched our first international Reporting Portal in Mauritius followed by a further 17.
Under the WeProtect Model National Response adopted at the
WeProtect Abu-Dhabi Summit 2015, governments agreed to
remove child sexual abuse material from the internet. We’re
helping countries achieve this objective. In 2017 we received a
grant of $448,875 by the Global Fund to End Violence Against
Children enabling us to deliver a further 30 portals in the least
developed countries, driven by a dedicated International
Development Manager.
Tanzania received the first portal under the grant, and an
ambitious programme in Africa, Central America and Asia-Pacific
has begun.
A Reporting Portal can show that a country is a hostile place for
child sexual abuse, and that it is being proactive in safeguarding
children as well as cyber systems. Robust cybersecurity
measures also bring opportunities for these countries through
international trade and economic growth.
Jenny Thornton, IWF
International
Development Manager:
There is a global disparity in the availability of mechanisms for tackling child sexual abuse imagery online. To address this unevenness, in a world where child sexual abuse imagery online is a crime that disregards international borders, we are dedicated to equipping the least developed countries with a Reporting Portal. It’s important to do this now, before these countries are targeted because of their vulnerability.
Each Reporting Portal uses our existing and world-class Hotline service.
All reports come to our analysts who work directly with the
internet industry and law enforcement to have the criminal
imagery removed quickly.
The portal needs no hardware or personnel costs to be covered
by the host country or territory, and uses our expertise of over 20
years. It is affordable and quick to set up for countries and
territories worldwide.
We received 636 reports from the global portals network in 2017.
In November, we partnered with the US Department of Justice
and Department of State in a symposium attended by
delegations from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
Using the WePROTECT Global Alliance’s Model National Response as a framework, the symposium focused on developing national responses for combating online child sexual exploitation. A key component of a comprehensive national response is enabling global citizens to report online images and videos of child sexual abuse.
Steven J. Grocki, Chief, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Division, United States Department of Justice:
Effective partnerships between government entities and non-governmental organizations, like those being achieved through the WePROTECT Global Alliance, are essential to the global effort to combat online child exploitation.
reporting solution
Image: Speaking at the Tanzania portal press conference was Mr Semu Mwakyanjala, Principal Corporate Communications Officer (PCCO) at the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA).
The United Republic of Tanzania launched their Reporting
Portal in November, covering the Tanzania mainland as well as Zanzibar Island which has its own police force and customs.
There was clear national leadership and ownership of the portal
from the start. Additionally, it’s crucial with every launch that
we understand the country we’re working with in order to make
the portal a success.
Language
Two versions of the Reporting Portal were developed, in English and in Kiswahili to reflect the languages spoken. Accurate translations of terminology were essential for wide understanding and we worked with partners in Tanzania to guide this.
National politics
In 2017, a new Tanzanian law was passed to regulate online content producers including social media users. Citizens were encouraged to report illegal online content. Therefore, the portal launch received much support from the government and media on the mainland, and in Zanzibar.
Magdalena Aguilar, Co- Chief Executive, Child Helpline International:
Child Helpline International and the Internet Watch Foundation are working together to ensure that children are protected online and offline. Both organisations believe that child helplines should not only support children and young people who suffer abuses online, but also refer and report cases to local authorities and portals so that their rights can be restored. As a result of our partnership, in 2017 C-Sema, child helpline Tanzania, became the host for the Tanzanian portal, while Linha Fala Crianca in Mozambique and Lifeline/Childline in Zambia participated in the roundtable discussions held in Maputo and Lusaka respectively.
Image: Heidi Kempster, Director of Business Affairs.
At the IWF we believe in the importance of looking after people. It is a simple value, but one that shapes all our work.
So, whether it is respecting the feelings of the young victims in the images, or caring for our analysts, whose job it is to find and remove these disturbing reminders of abuse, we put people first.
The IWF works with global partners and hotlines to ensure that wherever child sexual abuse images are stored, shared or distributed, we are able to act against them.
Our international partners work with us to help survivors of child sexual abuse move on from their experiences and to provide reassurance that images and content depicting their abuse are taken down. We work internationally to provide reassure both to UK and overseas survivors that we are doing everything possible to get content featuring them taken down.
Our analysts work every day with
incredibly challenging situations and
material. One spoke about a report we
received in November about content
depicting a young girl who we will call
Georgia.
This isn’t her real name and we’ve
changed a few details to protect her
identity.
The images were very disturbing. They showed the youngster
being sexually abused by a much older man. One of the pictures
was particularly graphic and I classified it as category ‘A’ – which
is the ‘worst of the worst’ level of abuse,” our analyst explained.
“Importantly, because I could legally search for child sexual
abuse imagery online, I could track down all the disturbing
material. It took me two and a half days to scour the web for
more instances of her images. In total, I found 164 URLs. Sadly,
the webpages also contained photographs of other children
being horribly abused. Some were really, really young.
“It took two and a half days to get all the images taken down
across the world. But I hope the work I did had an important
impact for Georgia.
“I know that our team can’t take the abuse away. The victims we
help are real children. They’ve been horribly abused and
exploited. Their suffering is very real. But we can remove the
online images of their abuse. And for young women like Georgia,
we do make a real difference.
Our analysts remove thousands of images of child sexual abuse
from the internet and some offenders don’t like that. So, names
have been changed to protect identities, but the words are real.
Please visit link to film:
Rebecca:
“As an analyst, nothing can truly prepare you for what you’re going to see. Each working day, we
see multiple images of children being hideously abused.
“These are real children, ordinary children. They go to school, they do their homework, they have
friends and families. But something terrible is happening to them in secret and we see their
suffering, from new born babies, right up to teenagers.
“I try not to think about what’s going on too much, but sometimes it takes your breath away – how
could someone do something like that to a baby?
“This is shocking. There is absolutely no doubt.”
Shannon:
“We all go through a desensitisation programme and we’re introduced to the images on a graded
basis. New analysts aren’t just thrown in at the deep end and expected to deal with it; we’re given
time and emotional support.
“But if I’m being totally honest, we’re all human and I would say that for every analyst there will be
one victim, one image, that stays with you for longer. For whatever reason, that abuse sticks. We
all learn to cope with that.
“For me, listening to sound, it makes it more real. It seems to hit your emotions if you can hear the
child crying, or an adult shouting. It’s makes it hard to escape the truth.”
In 2017, our Hotline analysts removed 80,318 illegal webpages and newsgroups of children being sexually abused.
Steve:
“Yes, there are three to four images that I’ll carry around with me for a very long time. I wish we
didn’t have to do this job, but for now that’s not the case. Our work ranges from the erotic posing of
children, through to the most severe abuse – rape and sexual torture.
“It can be quite distressing for people to see what is horrendous abuse inflicted on innocent and
often very young children. The sites we find could contain anything from one to a thousand images
of child rape. That’s not easy to handle.
“But for every abusive image we remove from the internet, that’s one less image of suffering on the
web. And we never forget that each image we identify is a crime scene. Our work could and does
lead to the rescue of these children.”
Kate:
“Sadly, for the children that aren’t rescued, we sometimes see victims growing up. Their lives play
out in front of us, from tiny babies to toddlers, young teens to adults. These are perhaps the most
tragic cases and they’re driven by offenders, who demand more and more images of abuse.
“I suppose that’s why we do what we do. We want to make a difference. We want to stop victims
being tormented by the fact that the images and videos of their abuse could be shared, and shared
again. We want to help rescue these child victims.
“As our team manager says, we’re just an ordinary bunch of people – but we’re doing an
extraordinary job.”
The UK Safer Internet Centre is a partnership of three leading organisations – Childnet International, South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL) and the IWF - with a shared mission to make the internet a better and safer place for children and young people.
The partnership was appointed by the European Commission in January 2011 and is one of the 31 Safer Internet Centres of the Insafe network. The centre has five main functions:
- Education, training and awareness: Increasing the UK’s resilience through innovative tools, services, resources, campaigns and training.
- Helpline: Supporting the children’s workforce.
- Hotline: Disrupting the distribution of child sexual abuse content.
- Youth Participation: Giving youth a voice and inspiring active digital citizenship.
- Leadership and collaboration: Creating a UK and global ecosystem that embeds online safety.
Watch the Safer Internet Day 2017 video
With the theme ‘Be the change: Unite for a better internet’, Safer Internet Day 2017 engaged more people across the UK than ever before.
1,645 organisations took part and more than seven million people were reached on social media. As a result, SID encouraged a global conversation about internet safety revealing fascinating insights into the impacts and importance of images and videos in a young person’s life.
