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IWF 2015 Annual Report Here Design and print sponsored by IWF 2015 HEADLINES 121 112,975 417% internet industry increase in reports of reports processed Members working child sexual abuse by our Hotline: 52% with us images and video increase on 2014 since 2013 941 webpages actioned in a single record 34% breaking day 69% of images were of victims assessed category A – which as 10 or under is rape or sexual torture of children Only 0.2% of the world’s known child sexual abuse 68,092 imagery is hosted reports confirmed in the UK as child sexual 3% abuse URLs: of victims assessed 118% increase as 2 or under on 2014 MEMBERS £75,000 £50,000+ £25,000+ £20,000 £15,000+ £10,000 £5,000+ £2,500 £1,000 WHAT WE DO CONTENTS Our vision is the global ABOUT US Our remit is to minimise the availability of elimination of child sexual online sexual abuse content. Specifically: About us 04 • Child sexual abuse content* hosted Chair’s Foreword 05 abuse imagery online anywhere in the world. • Criminally obscene adult content hosted Welcome from the CEO 06 • We work to make the internet a safer place. • We help victims of child sexual abuse in the UK. 2015 figures 07 • Non-photographic child sexual abuse worldwide by identifying and removing images hosted in the UK. 2015 trends 17 online images and videos of their abuse. • We search for child sexual abuse images Work with our Members 21 and videos and then we have them and Services removed. HOW WE DO • Our Hotline offers a safe place for the Working to protect children 25 public to report anonymously. THIS Our analysts 27 • We’re a not-for-profit organisation and are supported by the global internet industry • We work internationally to identify, assess, Our global work 29 and the European Commission. report and help remove illegal child sexual abuse imagery. International Reporting Portals 31 Online child sexual abuse imagery is a global problem, • We provide a high quality Hotline service which demands a global solution. The internet doesn’t for anyone to securely and anonymously Partnerships 33 respect geographical borders, so we work closely with report child sexual abuse imagery. Accountability and support 35 partners worldwide. They include industry, law • We actively search for child sexual abuse enforcement agencies, governments, charities and other images and videos on the public internet IWF Champions 36 hotlines. This helps us to eradicate online images of child and work with industry partners worldwide sexual abuse as quickly and efficiently as possible. to remove these images and stop them Governance 37 In 2015, we worked hard to implement emerging from being spread further. Charity report and accounts 39 technologies to improve the identification and removal • Our self-regulatory model is recognised of these images. We used our research to help industry “This has been a hugely important year for globally as the best practice for combating Glossary 41 and policy-makers make informed decisions. And we’ve those at the front of our global efforts against online child sexual abuse imagery. employed ever-more innovative tactics and services to the crime of the taking and sharing of images • Our mission is to share our expertise reduce online child sexual abuse images, globally. depicting the sexual abuse of children. and play an active role in the UK Safer This year, our figures show we’ve worked harder Thanks to the efforts of the IWF and their Internet Centre. than ever before. close working with industry and the NCA, we have seen more sites identified and more pages removed, helping to protect more For more detail: children from this appalling crime. “The IWF is also now taking a proactive role The Annual Report is designed to provide a in seeking out these images. The figures tell ‘snapshot’ of our year. But if you’d like more the real story on this: there has been an increase detailed information, please go to our new of over 400% in reports of images on 2013. website at www.iwf.org.uk In addition to this, IWF has secured the support of global internet companies to help develop and then roll out their new Image Hash List. As they say, this could be a real game changer, by using images they have verified to detect and remove further child abuse material from the internet. I think this is real progress and shows what can be achieved. “I’m proud that we are working together with “BT has a long and strong relationship with the IWF as they continue to play a vital role in the IWF and is committed to working with helping to protect vulnerable children, in the them to reduce online access to child sexual UK and across the globe.” abuse materials in order to make the internet a safer place for all.” By Lisa Stacey, IWF 2016. The Rt Hon David Cameron MP, Prime Minister Gavin Patterson, Chief Executive, BT *We use the term child sexual abuse to reflect the gravity of the images and videos we deal with. Child pornography, child porn and kiddie porn are not acceptable descriptions. A child cannot consent to their own abuse. 03 04 Since then, when the internet was in its infancy, we have Our Members know that being part of the IWF family taken over 660,000* reports. Not all were reports of shows the world that they take online safety seriously. images or videos of child sexual abuse, but most were of They’ll do whatever they have to do, to rid the internet concern to the public. It was our job to investigate and, of this horrendous material. where appropriate, help to remove illegal images. During 2015 we played an active role in WePROTECT, Of course, numbers of ‘reports’ can feel dispassionate. the global initiative launched by Prime Minister David But what we never forget is that behind each and every Cameron in London in December 2014. This involved image there is a real child. Their suffering is very real. working on a number of projects and participating as That’s why reading the stories of Charlotte and Zara a member of the International Advisory Board at the (see pages 25 and 26), who’ve been repeatedly second global summit in Abu Dhabi in November. WELCOME victimised by having their abuse shared over and over The most important outcome for us has been the again on the internet, puts our work into context for me. development of a global Image Hash List for the internet industry. As Chair of the IWF, I can tell you that we’re all deeply committed to our work. Not only because we want to As a self-regulatory body that’s independent of both law make the internet a safer place for everyone, but most enforcement and government, we’re in a unique position importantly because we’re determined to help victims to provide services to industry. Our Image Hash List is a of child sexual abuse imagery. new service – and we believe it will be a real game changer in the global fight against online child sexual In 2015 we’ve been more effective than ever. We’ve abuse. Every unique image is given its own digital actively searched for illegal images of child sexual abuse fingerprint, a unique identifier called a ‘Hash’ (not to be on the internet as well as taking reports from the public. confused with ‘#Hashtag’). In the last quarter of 2015 Our team of expert Hotline analysts have processed we started building our Hash List of images. 112,975 reports, which is a 52 per cent increase on 2014. Although our analysts see thousands of images and The figures are impressive. But it’s the people behind videos, very few are new to them. Most images have the headlines that I find most interesting. Ruth and Peter been shared online for years and there are often (see pages 27 and 28) give a real insight into what it’s thousands of duplicates of individual images on the like to work as an analyst, including the highs like helping internet. Until recently, this meant that most victims had to CHAIR’S with the ’rescue’ of a child and the lows, like finding huge WELCOME live with the knowledge that those images will be shared numbers of hideous images. Our analysts are an again and again. With our Image Hash List, there’s the extraordinary group of people, who do an real possibility that we can start removing these duplicate FOREWORD extraordinary job. FROM THE images and potentially stop this repeat victimisation. We also have a dedicated Senior Management Team, We’ll be using the list in two ways. Firstly, we’ll give it to Sir Richard Tilt a supportive Funding Council, a new Ethics Committee Members, who’ll be able to run the daily list through their (see page 35) and, of course, our Board. This year we CEO services to stop any matches being uploaded. Secondly, were saddened by the news that Catherine Crawford we’ll use it for our own proactive searching programme. Welcome to our Annual OBE, a Board member, had passed away. We’ll all miss We can direct the list at sections of the internet to identify her energy and dedication. On a positive note, we have Susie Hargreaves matches, which we can then remove as part of our Report for 2015 been joined by Becky Foreman and Jonathan Lea (see day-to-day work. page 37). Mary MacLeod has left the Board, after six years of great service, but I’m glad to say that she “As I head towards my fifth No matter what services we provide or activities we remains at the helm of our Ethics Committee in an anniversary leading the IWF, undertake, we can’t be successful without the support of “This year our Hotline has independent capacity.
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