Internet Watch Foundation

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is pleased to announce Hamish MacLeod has been elected to his third term of office and Mark Gracey to his second term of office on the IWF Board. Both Trustees, along with Emma Ascroft, Board Industry Vice-Chair and Head of Public and Social Policy at Yahoo! UK & Ireland, represent the online industry on the Board. Their experience and knowledge will continue to contribute significantly to the strategic direction of the organisation as issues of potentially illegal online content, self-regulation and good practice in combating the abuse of internet services become more prominent.   

 

Mark, Content Regulation Manager at THUS, is responsible for internet content and Premium Rate telephony regulation, liaison with law enforcement and data protection compliance under the THUS and Demon brands. Mark’s role encompasses all aspects of industry regulation and compliance, including giving customers advice in this area, and involves active roles in a range of industry forums including the Home Secretary's Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet. He also chairs the UKCTA subgroups on PRS and data retention as well as being co-opted onto the Board of AIME.

 

Since the beginning of 2002 Hamish has chaired the Mobile Broadband Group, a grouping formed by the five mobile network operators in the UK and Virgin Mobile to work jointly on a range of public policy issues, in particular, the protection of children from potentially illegal or harmful content. Prior to this, he worked from 1995 to 2001 with the TIW Group of companies in a number of subsidiaries, which included Oasis Cellular in Rajasthan and Dolphin Telecom in Europe, where he was Head of Finance for networks and latterly Head of Regulatory Affairs.

 

Amanda Jordan OBE, IWF Chair, said: “We are extremely grateful for the support and encouragement we receive from our Board and I am delighted to welcome back Mark and Hamish. Their experience and wise counsel, along with our other Trustees, is critical if we are to build on the successes of the past and as we shape up to meet the new and uncharted challenges of the future.

In addition to industry members Mark, Hamish and Emma, the IWF Board includes the following non-industry members: Amanda Jordan OBE, Independent Chair; Professor Ian Walden, Non-industry Vice-Chair; Sir Rodney Brooke CBE; Naomi Cohen; Stephen Locke; Tink Palmer; and Dr Suzy Walton.

 

IWF is managed by a single Board of 10 members, comprising six non-industry members, three industry members, and an independent Chair. Industry members are chosen by the Funding Council through a procedure which is determined by the Council. The non-industry members are chosen by an open selection procedure managed by a sub-committee of the Board comprising the Chair, representation from both non-industry and industry Board membership, and an independent person from outside the Board.

 

Full biographies of IWF Board members and further details of IWF governance processes are available on our website: http://www.iwf.org.uk/corporate/page.38.htm.

 

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The IWF is the only recognised organisation in the UK operating an internet ‘Hotline’ for the public and IT professionals to report their inadvertent exposure to potentially illegal content online.

 

Our aim is to minimise the availability of potentially illegal internet content, specifically:

We work in partnership with UK Government departments such as the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to influence initiatives and programmes developed to combat online abuse. This dialogue goes beyond the UK and Europe, to ensure greater awareness of global issues and responsibilities.

 

We are a self-regulatory body, funded by the EU and the wider online industry. This includes internet service providers (ISPs), mobile operators and manufacturers, content service providers, telecommunications and filtering companies, search providers and the financial sector as well as blue-chip and other organisations who support us for corporate social responsibility reasons.

  

Through the 'Hotline' reporting system, we help ISPs to combat abuse of their services through a ‘notice and take-down’ service by alerting them to any potentially illegal content within our remit on their systems and simultaneously inviting the police to investigate the publisher.

 

As a result, less than 1% of potentially illegal content has apparently been hosted in the UK since 2003, down from 18% in 1997.

 

In partnership with many organisations we strive to create continued awareness of the role and purpose of the IWF and aim to foster trust and reassurance in the internet for current and future users.

 

Please note that "child pornography", "child porn" or "kiddie porn" are not acceptable terms. The use of such language acts to legitimise images which are not pornography, rather, they are permanent records of children being sexually abused and as such should be referred to as child sexual abuse images.

Tel: +44 (0) 1223 237 700