Internet Watch Foundation

24 October 2008

ScanSafe, provider of SaaS Web Security, pledges its support to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the UK ‘Hotline’ for reporting child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world, on IWF Awareness Day.

 

The IWF is an independent, self-regulatory body funded by the EU and the wider online industry, and works in partnership with the police, governments, education and the charity sector to combat the availability of illegal online content.  IWF helps internet service providers and hosting companies to combat abuse of their networks through a national ‘notice and take-down’ service and provides unique data to law enforcement partners in the UK and abroad to assist investigations into the distributers of potentially illegal online content.

 

As a result of this partnership approach, less than 1% of child sexual abuse content, known to the IWF, has been hosted in the UK since 2003, down from 18% in 1997. As sexually abusive images of children are primarily hosted abroad, IWF also facilitates the industry-led initiative to protect users from inadvertent exposure to this content by blocking access to it through the provision of a dynamic list of child sexual abuse URLs.

 

Peter Robbins OBE, QPM, IWF Chief Executive said: "To effectively combat illegal online content the IWF relies on the united support of the wider online and IT sector. We are very grateful for ScanSafe’s commitment to our work and we will continue to work in partnership with many companies in the UK and abroad to eradicate child sexual abuse content on the internet, disrupt access to it and help bring those responsible to justice."

 

Eldar Tuvey, CEO at ScanSafe said: "As the pioneer of SaaS Web Security we are committed to protecting users from the dangers of the Internet.  As we take active steps to protect users from malicious online content we also fully support IWF in its efforts to eradicate child abuse content online. We hope our continued support can assist IWF in further achieving its goals."

 

-ends-

Media Contact:        
Susie Bailey, ScanSafe        
Office:  +44 (0) 20 7959 0648      
Mobile: +44 (0) 7875 360 437    
Email: susie.bailey@scansafe.com 

 

About ScanSafe
ScanSafe is the largest global provider of SaaS Web Security, ensuring a safe and productive Internet environment for businesses. ScanSafe solutions keep viruses and spyware off corporate networks and allow businesses to control and secure the use of the Web and instant messaging. As a fully managed service, ScanSafe's solutions require no hardware, upfront capital costs or maintenance and provide unparalleled real-time threat protection. Powered by its proactive, multilayered Outbreak Intelligence TM threat detection technology, ScanSafe scans more than 17 billion Web requests and blocks 170 million threats each month for customers in over 60 countries.

With offices in London and San Francisco, California, ScanSafe is privately owned and financed by Benchmark Capital and Scale Venture Partners.  The company received the CNET UK Business and Technology award for Security Product of the Year 2008, a 2007 CODiE award for Best Software as a Service Solution, the 2008 and 2007 SC Magazine Europe Award for Best Content Security Solution and was named one of Red Herring’s Top 100 Technology companies. For more information, visit www.scansafe.com.

IWF is the UK’s internet ‘Hotline’ for the public and IT professionals to report potentially illegal online content within our remit. We work in partnership with the online industry, law enforcement, government, the education sector, charities, international partners and the public to minimise the availability of this content, specifically, child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world and criminally obscene and incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK.

 

We are an independent self-regulatory body, funded by the EU and the wider online industry, including internet service providers, mobile operators and manufacturers, content service providers, filtering companies, search providers, trade associations and the financial sector as well as other organisations that support us for corporate social responsibility reasons. 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. Our self-regulatory partnership approach is widely recognised as an effective model in combating the abuse of technology for the dissemination of illegal content.

 

Please note that "child pornography", "child porn" and "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.

 

For more information about IWF, please visit www.iwf.org.uk, tel: +44 (0) 1223 237700 or email media@iwf.org.uk.