Internet Watch Foundation

 

Recommendation 17

 

"We recommend that the United KingdomGovernment take advantage of the expertise which exists in certain independent monitoring organisations to address the issue of harmful content. However, we also recommend that the Government takes steps to ensure that such organisations conform to the principles of good regulation as laid down by the Cabinet Office's Better Regulation Task Force. (See paragraph 259)"

 

The Government does not want people to be put off using the Internet because they are afraid of finding offensive or illegal content. We strongly support the work of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), an independent organisation set up by the ISP industry to monitor and tackle harmful content on the web. The IWF is well respected internationally as a model for co-regulation of Internet content. It regulates the Internet with the appropriate "light touch" while dealing effectively with illegal material such as child pornography.

 

The IWF operates a hotline to which people can report potentially illegal material they come across on the Internet. It then notifies both law enforcement (in the UK or overseas) and the Internet Service Provider that hosts the material, so that it can be removed. The IWF is also active, both in the UK and internationally, in promoting rating and filtering systems which allow consumers to block access to certain types of material either for themselves or their children. Members of the public have strongly supported the IWF's approach as far preferable to direct Government intervention.

 

We consider that the IWF conforms in full with the principles of good regulation established by the Task Force. The organisation is run on an entirely transparent basis: its policy objectives are clearly stated and it produces an annual report which is available on its website. It takes a consistent and a proportionate approach to regulation: its actions are limited to what is necessary to control illegal content and it applies the same rules to on-line content as would apply off-line. In an independent report of 1999, the consultants KPMG commended the IWF's work and, in particular, its success in tackling child pornography on the net.

 

Source: House of Commons Commission Report  (19 December 2000)