Newsgroups
Since its formation in 1996, the potentially illegal content found in Usenet newsgroups has presented IWF with a challenge. Worldwide there are tens of thousands of newsgroups; content is not controlled by ISPs and the public can post directly to a newsgroup. The groups, which present a problem, are a very small proportion of the total groups available.
In addition to the notice and takedown procedures for the removal of specific potentially illegal postings, IWF has approved two policies designed to combat paedophile content in newsgroups.
Newsgroup content:
The first policy is designed to deal with newsgroups, which regularly contain potentially illegal child sexual abuse images. In November 2001 IWF Board adopted a policy of recommending UK ISPs not to host newsgroups, which regularly contain child sexual abuse content. “Regularly” was defined at the February 2002 Board as:
Finding an average of at least 1% of images viewed to be potentially illegal and additionally applying a further test whereby in each of six consecutive monitoring rounds finding any potentially illegal content would lead to immediate listing of the group.
The IWF Hotline team has a systematic process for monitoring the content of newsgroups and for notifying ISPs of those groups where the potentially illegal content has been above the approved threshold. Independent specialists in statistical analysis reviewed the IWF’s newsgroup sampling and monitoring process and their recommendations were fully implemented. The independent review gives the public and industry confidence that IWF recommendations with regard to newsgroup content are soundly based.
Newsgroup names:
At their meeting in November 2001 IWF Board resolved that:
The IWF executive, in consultation with interested parties, draws up criteria and, using those criteria, a list of newsgroups which have names that appear to advertise or advocate paedophile content or activity, this to be presented to the next Board meeting.
At the following Board meeting in February 2002 criteria and a process for identifying such groups was approved. As part of the policy development process, IWF received legal advice from the Crown Prosecution Service and from our own independent Standing Counsel that, a newsgroup name could, in certain circumstances, be an illegal advertisement under the Protection of Children Act 1978 and an ISP which knowingly carries such a group name will be committing an offence. Following the July 2002 Board meeting and based upon the legal advice, a list of newsgroup names was compiled and the recommendations resulting from this policy resulted in IWF advising UK ISPs they should not carry specific newsgroups because their names are potentially illegal advertisements.
Monthly updates on the recommendations from these two policies are sent to UK ISPs.
Many UK ISPs go much further than the IWF recommendations via their own company policies on restricting which newsgroups they will carry.
Page Created: Tue, October 19th, 2004
Page Modified: Mon, February 25th, 2008
