Chair's report
CHAIR’S REPORT
My last report …
INTERNAL MATTERS
I chaired a briefing/discussion at Oakington with a Chinese delegation of seven led by Cai Mingzhao, the Vice Minister of the State Council Information Office. China - which now has around 100 million Internet users and some 670,000 registered web sites - has of course a totally different approach to the control of Internet content, worrying especially about the political criticism (or “rumours” as they put it) on bulletin boards but, when it comes to the removal of child abuse images, their abhorrence and opposition are the same as ours.
I have liaised with Peter Robbins & Brian Wegg and with Chris Atkinson & Hamish MacLeod on the process of selection of our new Chair, assisting with arranging for Ofcom Vice-Chairman Richard Hooper being the independent member of the appointment panel, and I spent an hour with Simon Cummins and Caroline Nickerson of Odgers, Ray & Berndtson discussing the requirements of the post.
Together with Peter, I have had a couple of useful discussions with the new Chair of the Funding Council Simon Persoff. At Simon’s invitation, I visited the Funding Council to assure members that our acquisition of charitable status has no impact on our remit and to review my six years as Chair of the main Board. This was only the second time that I have attended a FC meeting.
EXTERNAL MATTERS
Strangely I have done no media work for IWF for 18 months and then I found myself in a period of 24 hours doing five television interviews – three recorded and two live – on the Government’s proposal to make it illegal to view certain extreme adult pornography.
I made a presentation on behalf of IWF at an Oxford Internet Institute conference on cyber-safety & cyber-security. Other speakers at the event included IWF Board members Ian Walden, Sonia Livingstone, Chris Atkinson & Mark Gracey. I gave a short video-recorded interview to the conference organiser which is now on the conference web site together with similar interviews by Ian and Sonia.
I participated in a three-day international media conference at Balatonalmadi in Hungary. This was organised by the International Children’s Safety Service (NGS) and the National Radio and Television Board (ORTT) and the title was “The Effects Of The Media On Children And Young People”. I made a presentation on the subject “Combating Child Abuse Images On The Internet: The British Experience”. All expenses were met by the organisers.
REVIEW
As colleagues are well aware, like the President of the United States (!), the constitution only permits me two terms of office. So, after a total of six years as the first independent Chair of the IWF, I will step down on 31 December 2005. As I look back over those six years, I recall many things:
- I have chaired 24 Board meetings (and never missed one)
- I have visited the Oakington office 28 times
- Originally I nominated the non-industry members of the Board and then I chaired the open selection procedure for such members
- I chaired the panel which appointed the new Chief Executive
- Staffing of the organisation has risen from six to 13
- We have seen the launch of an e-newsletter and off-line reports
- We had a major review of governance leading to a Board of 10 instead of 13
- We have produced a new Board Members' Handbook
- We had a major review of our remit leading to a tighter focus on combating illegal material
- We produced a new Code of Practice for members
- We introduced a new, tougher newsgroup policy based on blocking groups regularly hosting CAI or advertising such images and a recent review of this policy found it to be extremely effective
- We have created the CAI database and now see it used with BT’s Cleanfeed and similar initiatives.
- The number of reports handled has increased from 1,291 (1999) to over 20,000 (estimate for 2005)
- The proportion of illegal content found to be hosted in UK fallen from 5% (1999) to less than 1% (2004)
- As a result of our policies, some half a million illegal newsgroup images are no longer accessible by UK Net users
- The number of funders has increased from 9 (1999) to 55 (2005)
- Annual income has increased from £225,000 (1999) to over £700,000 (2004)
- We now have a much stronger funding base and the acquisition of charitable status will provide tax advantages and the possibility of new sources of funding
- In February 2001, at the Annual Dinner of the Internet Service Providers' Association (ISPA), IWF won the award for the most "positive contribution to the Internet industry".
- In September 2001, at a conference on telecommunications regulation organised by BT, IWF won the award for "the organisation or government department which has implemented regulation in the best interests of the consumer".
- In October 2004, the Prime Minister told the House of Commons that “The UK has perhaps the world’s best regime for tackling child pornography, the Internet Watch Foundation”.
Of course, this is not the result of my personal effort - instead it is the outcome of contributions by many, many individuals and organisations in a spirit of teamwork and partnership. I thank all of those involved in this success, particularly our Funding Council members, our Board members, and our excellent staff.
It only remains for me to wish the IWF all the best for the future and to say “Roger and out”.
ROGER DARLINGTON
23 October 2005
Page Created: Thu, November 17th, 2005
Page Modified: Thu, November 17th, 2005
