Internet Watch Foundation (Global)

With support from the Fund, the Internet Watch Foundation is progressing its mission to eliminate child sexual abuse from the internet by working in 30 countries – the majority of which are in Africa – to implement web-based portals for citizens to report online child sexual abuse content and make the Internet a safer place for children and adults around the world.

The aim of the project is to support countries without anywhere to report images and videos of child sexual abuse. IWF provides a reporting button which feeds directly to their expert analysts in the UK, who assess the reports according to UK Law and work to remove the content as quickly as possible from the internet.

Online child sexual abuse imagery is a global problem that demands a global solution: the project brings together governments, police, the internet industry and civil society, to do what’s needed to free the internet of child sexual abuse To better explain the impact of the project the IWF has shared Olivia’s story. Olivia was subject to appalling sexual abuse from the age of three until she was rescued aged eight. But the trauma of child sexual abuse doesn’t end when the abuse stops. Olivia’s abuse was recorded, and the pictures and videos of her torture shared online. So, despite her physical abuse ending when she was rescued in 2013, the IWF still see her images at least five times a day, every day, as they are distributed across the internet.

For Olivia, and others like her, its essential that we do everything possible to remove her images and work with partners to stop the abuse and stop the demand for the images.