Daniel Zeichner MP visited the Internet Watch Foundation to find out about global efforts to eliminate online child sexual abuse imagery. 

The IWF identifies online child sexual abuse content and works globally to have it removed. Established in 1996, the charity is one of the largest and most effective hotlines in the world identifying and removing online images and videos of child sexual abuse. In 2015, the IWF assessed 68,092 reports as child sexual abuse webpages.

Mr Zeichner learned how the IWF has built operational partnerships with police, government, civil society organisations, the internet industry and other hotlines around the world to combat the spread of this material. Mr Zeichner will also discover how politicians can take part in the IWF Champions Initiative to raise the profile of the charity.

The visit came as the IWF won “Innovation of the Year 2016” at the CloudHosting Awards for its Image Hash List. The Image Hash List helps stop the upload, storage and sharing of child sexual abuse images online, and was launched in October 2016. The cutting-edge technology could eliminate millions of images of sexual abuse from the internet and is already being used by top internet companies.

As active part of the UK Safer Internet Centre, the IWF participated in Safer Internet Day on 7 February this year.

Daniel Zeichner MP said: “The IWF does extremely important work in making the internet a safe and secure place. It is leading the way in showing how the voluntary sector can work with industry and law enforcement authorities.”

IWF CEO Susie Hargreaves said: “We’re honoured to welcome Daniel to our offices this week. We greatly appreciate his interest in our work. It’s essential that we keep this issue high on the agenda and being supported by parliamentarians is key to this. I’m looking forward to strengthening our relationship in the future.”