The UK Internet Watch Foundation ( IWF ), which works with broadband ISPs to block child sexual abuse content and associated websites from public view, has today released its latest Annual Report 2010. The report notes that the IWF is now able to remove related content twice as fast (average of 12 days) as they could one year ago (average of one month).

It is however important to stress that blocking does not completely "remove" such content from the internet because ISPs have no direct control over third party sites and servers, which sadly means that related restrictions are all too easily circumvented with only minimal technical knowledge (e.g. VPN, Proxy Servers etc.).


The only completely effective way of dealing with such content is to remove it at source (i.e. where it's being hosted), although this often proves to be extremely difficult due to the different laws and customs between countries. The IWF also does this.

IWF Tactics
* Reporting mechanism for the public to report their inadvertent exposure to potentially criminal child sexual abuse content.
* ‘Notice and takedown’ system to swiftly remove child sexual abuse content at source.
* Targeted assessment and monitoring system to remove child sexual abuse content in newsgroups.
* Provision of a child sexual abuse URL list to ISPs, mobile operators, search engines and content providers to help disrupt access to child sexual abuse content.
* Working with domain name registries and registrars to deregister domain names dedicated to the distribution of child sexual abuse content.

Many people often say that, while the IWF filter clearly isn't perfect (ISP implementations of the filter frequently lead to legitimate websites becoming accidentally inaccessible), it is at least attempting to tackle the problem. The debate often surrounds whether or not it makes much difference, which is harder to judge.

The IWF’s Annual Report also reveals a significant development in understanding the commercial operations behind the distribution of child sexual abuse images. It now believes that of the 300 branded sources that were active during 2010, the ten most prolific account for at least half of the commercial webpages it has seen.

This information provides an important focus for law enforcement agencies working around the world to combat this serious issue and bring those responsible to justice.