Internet Watch Foundation

All UK police forces: Chief Constables, call centres, Webmasters, front desk staff,

 

To reiterate IWF remit to police officers

 

Although the IWF has positive links to all British Police Services and is an important partner to the new Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, research shows that the IWF role and remit are not clear amongst police staff and just one of the UK’s police websites displays completely up-to-date information about IWF.

 

In a partnership approach, IWF and ACPO are working to raise awareness of the IWF, what it does and when the public should be referred to it. Valuable police time and resources could be saved if complaints from the public about potentially illegal internet content are passed to the IWF but officers must take care not to inadvertently misdirect members of the public to the IWF on the assumption that they deal with all internet crime matters.

 

As part of an integrated awareness campaign, each police force webmaster was provided with up-to-date and detailed information together with the IWF logo for uploading to their Force website. They were encouraged to also add an IWF webpage link to their homepage to ensure the public are helped as effectively as possible.

 

Campaign posters, coasters, mugs and information cards were sent to every UK police call centre and to front desk staff to improve their awareness of the IWF when they advise the public on such matters. Chief Constables were also informed of the aims of the campaign.

 

Jim Gamble, Chief Executive of the new Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre backed the campaign by writing letters to accompany the IWF materials.

 

In addition, the IWF placed a series of adverts in issues of popular Police magazine over four months and electronic ‘newsbriefs’ about the IWF were sent directly to officers’ desktops to increase the reach of this message. Magazine editorial also accompanied the campaign.

 

Two months after the first stage of the campaign, a follow-up mail-out of thousands of information cards was arranged to reinforce the message.

 

 

We had received a positive response so far from police officers who have found the materials useful and relevant. We have also received a number of requests for additional materials for officers and for specific events.

 

 

Before campaign:       57.7%

After campaign:          75%

Variance:                     Up by 17.3%

 

Before campaign:        60%

After campaign:          79% 

Variance:                    Up by 19%

 

Before campaign:        80%

After campaign:          90%

Variance:                     Up by 10%

 

 

Upon research interpretation, those police websites which still provide out-of-date information about the IWF will be sent a reminder email with the correct details.

 

After follow up:        90%

 

After follow up:        94%

 

After follow up:        90%