Internet Watch Foundation

Home Office Minister Paul Goggins today announced that the Government intends to ban possession of extreme pornographic material, and has published a consultation paper inviting views on the proposals.

 

Under the Government's proposals, it would be an offence to possess images depicting scenes of serious sexual violence and other obscene material.  Currently, The Obscene Publications Act (OPA) 1959, makes it an offence only to publish this material.

 

Independent body; the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is the only organisation in the UK to provide an internet ‘hotline’ service for the public to report their exposure to illegal content on the net, specifically; child abuse images hosted anywhere in the world; criminally obscene content hosted in the UK and criminally racist content hosted in the UK.

 

In operation since 1996 and funded by the UK internet industry,  Mobile Operators & Manufacturers, Credit Card Agencies and the EU, the IWF works with Internet Service Providers and Law Enforcement agencies in providing a universal “notice and take down” service to industry, to have illegal content removed and where possible, the people responsible for uploading the content investigated.

 

As a result the amount of illegal content hosted in the UK has been reduced from 18% to less than 1% in 2004 and has remained so throughout 2005.

 

Whereas the law on child abuse images is very clear, providing specific guidelines on what constitutes an offence and how this type of material is categorised, there are many factors which have made the governance of ‘adult’ pornographic content extremely difficult. These include; the global nature of the internet, the difficulty in regulating and controlling access to content, the range of legislation across the world and the increasing diversity in social attitudes.

 

The IWF deals very specifically with illegal content and is not involved in making moral judgements on web content. Material is assessed based on whether it is a breach of the law in the UK, according to relevant legislation. This enables a very clear line on what is and is not ‘actionable’ and what may or may not warrant potential police investigation.

 

It is already rare to find this type of extreme pornographic content hosted in the UK, due to the success of a partnership approach between the various parties to minimise the availability of such content.

 

The fact that many such sites are hosted outside the UK have made police investigations very difficult and it is hoped that the creation of new offences will assist in this process.

 

During the first 6 months of 2005 the IWF received 1074 reports categorised as 'potentially obscene adult material'.

 

This was 9% of all reports submitted to the IWF hotline in this period.

 

81% appeared to be hosted in the US, 5% in China, 5% in Russia and 9% in other countries.

 

Of those 1074 reports, 140 or 13% were assessed by the IWF hotline team to contain material that would potentially breach the Obscene Publications Act.

 

53% of those reports related to acts of extreme sexual torture.

 

Of the 140 reports, 60% appeared to be hosted in the US, 14% in China, 4% in Russia and 22% in 'other' countries.

 

No potentially illegal material appeared to be hosted or domain registered in the UK.

 

 

Peter Robbins, CEO, IWF said: “The UK has an excellent partnership model for dealing with potentially illegal content. The IWF will actively contribute in the consultation phase to achieve clarity in the new laws and to ensure appropriate partnerships are in place for the content that fails the test to be removed and where possible the individuals responsible investigated.”

 

The IWF will study the Governments proposals very carefully and will respond to the consultation paper after taking account of the views of our many stakeholders.

 

The IWF offers guidance on how to protect yourself from potentially illegal content online on its website, ‘Protection Online’ (Public Section).

 

 

 

Fay MacDonald

Communications Co-ordinator

01223 237 700

 

Brendan O'Grady

Home Office Press Office

020 7035 3850

Newsdesk for media enquiries: 020 7035 4381

 

Brian Ahearne

Communications Manager

020 7233 7239

ISPA UK: 0870 0500 710