IWF reports global decrease in child sexual abuse websites

For anyone who doesn't know, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is a UK self-regulatory body, funded by the internet industry and the EU, operating a national hotline for public reports of criminal internet content (http://www.iwf.org.uk/) and providing a notice and take-down service to companies offering web hosting services in the UK. Since 1996 it has dealt with more than 200,000 reports and has over 12 years’ experience of tracking and understanding the technologies and behaviour behind the sites.

The IWF today published its Annual Report 2008, revealing a fall of nearly 10% in the number of international websites with child sexual abuse content. The report warns against complacency, pointing to the serious nature of the images which are often carried on commercial websites. It also highlights the fact that 74% of child sexual abuse domains traced by IWF are commercial operations selling indecent images of children, and 75% of the these (some 850 unique domains) are registered with just 10 domain name registries. This underlines the importance of recent international efforts with domain name registries to get the site names delisted, and will remain a focus of IWF attention going forward.

Other trends are revealed in the report:

• 58% of child sexual abuse domains traced contain graphic images involving penetration or torture (47% of domains in 2007)


• 69% of the children appear to be 10 years old or younger; 24% 6 or under, and 4% 2 or under (80% appeared to be 10 or under in 2007)


• 74% of child sexual abuse domains traced are commercial operations, selling images (80% commercial in 2007)


• It is still rare to trace child sexual abuse content to hosts in the UK (under 1%).

In 2008:

• IWF issued 59 notices, in partnership with UK police forces, to UK internet service providers or host companies to take down potentially illegal content hosted on UK networks


• IWF provided specific data and intelligence to 22 police forces and agencies throughout the UK in support of potential prosecutions.


• There was a 3% decrease in reports processed by IWF Hotline, to approximately 34,000.


• There was a 9% decrease since 2007 and a 21% decrease since 2006, in the number of domains confirmed to contain indecent images of children (1536).

You can download the IWF report here .

Lord Stephen Carter CBE, Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting, welcomed the report, “I have followed the IWF’s work for many years and continue to be impressed by the breadth of its industry support and by the range of UK industry-led tactics to combat child sexual abuse content online which have impacted so positively around the world. Effective, widely supported self-regulation is not a simple formula. For the IWF it requires commitment to a range of stakeholder demands, public interest concerns, international political pressures, and technological evolution and I congratulate them on their achievements.”

The greatest challenge remains the global nature of the online distribution of child sexual abuse images. The IWF is convinced that only concerted international law enforcement action, in partnership with Hotlines, can tackle the remaining core of sites.

The IWF suggests five ways to tackle this global problem:

1. Public/private partnership involving service providers working through a system of self-regulation


2. National notice and take-down schemes to remove criminal online content quickly


3. Promotion of filtering services to prevent accidental access to websites containing child sexual abuse content


4. Partnership with domain name registries to delist domain names that sell child sexual abuse images


5. Sharing data, intelligence and tactics internationally to combat the cross-border nature of these crimes

Along with many other interested parties, I was at the House of Commons for the launch of the report, and was dismayed to discover that the IWF is staffed by just 15 people (including the poor image analysts) and operates on an annual budget of just £1 million. They really have made a remarkable difference in an area which can only grow more and more complex as the online world expands. eModeration have been a member of the IWF since March 2007 , and are proud to support them by not only doing our jobs - pulling down child abuse images and reporting to the relevant authorities - but by publicising the work of the IWF to the internet industry and the public.

Lord Carter said (and I quote) "This hasn't been an early or senior enough issue .... we need a protection regime which works". But the question is - will the government invest in it?

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eModeration in the New York Times today

We're happy to announce that the New York Times chose to interview eModeration when they wanted an article on the moderation of virtual worlds, and how technology from our partners Keibi and Crisp is assisting the process. The article (which also appeared in print) can be read in full here.

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Will Britain set the standard for the digital world?

If Britain is to be a leader in the world economy, it needs a high-speed and universally accessible digital network, according to reports emerging from Gordon Brown’s address to this morning’s Digital Britain Summit. The summit’s aim is for leading players in the digital economy to make their views known and for ministers to take soundings in advance of the government’s final Digital Britain report, due to be published at the end of July. Amongst those leading players discussing the UK's place in a global digital economy at the British Library in London today were Stephen Carter, the communications minister (whose interim report was published earlier this year), Business Secretary Peter Mandelson, Culture Secretary Andy Burnham, Sly Bailey, the chief executive of Trinity Mirror, and the ubiquitous broadcaster, technophile (and arch tweeter) Stephen Fry.

Following the mighty fall from grace of the banks, it seems to be the digital industry – currently accounting for about 8% of GDP – upon which hopes are pinned for an economic recovery, according to the Amanda Andrews in The Telegraph : “Lord Carter's Digital Britain review has always had an important position on the Government's agenda, but the near-collapse of the banks has moved it rapidly higher. The digital and creative industries are one of the Government's hopes of getting British business noticed for things other than a run on a bank.” And if the digital industries are to be in the forefront of the government’s minds, this then is our chance to take the lead on some of the most important issues within those industries.

Tamara Littleton - eModeration’s CEO - writing for the FT earlier this year, states the case for clear standards on content to be included in the final Digital Britain report. eModeration has talked elsewhere (and also on the feedback to the Interim Report) about how this might be done in practical terms.

If Britain is indeed to carry the torch for the rest of the world (or at least, not drop the baton), then we need a clear framework for setting and applying universal content standards. This is most important, of course, for the protection of the vulnerable or impressionable (namely, children and young adults) from inappropriate content. But it’s also important for other reasons, such as privacy, and the protection of personal and brand reputation.

Digital Britain leading the way is not all about keeping up with the international Jones’ with faster access for every home (important though this is, and we are delighted at the whiff of funding emanating from the summit today). Leading the way in the digital world means also setting the standards for that world.

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Starting up your Online Community

In the first post in our series on Community Management, Pitfalls of Community Management, we looked at the most common mistakes brands make. In this second post, we want to focus on best practice in building an online community. It’s a pretty big subject, so we’re going to start at the beginning, with advice on what to consider when you’re embarking on setting up a new online community.

Online communities are now, more than ever before, created as part of a customer loyalty strategy on behalf of the brands behind them. This is a significant shift in the last couple of years; previously a community was more of an add-on to a brand programme, a test of whether it was worth spending the time and money on building something longer term. It’s encouraging to see that more companies are taking advice on how to build a sustainable, loyal online community at the outset of the project, rather than tagging something onto a brand programme.

So, here is our list of steps to take when first building an online community, compiled by our team of experienced community managers and moderators. If you have anything you’d like to add, or would like to share your experiences, please tell us by commenting on this blog!


First steps to building an online community:


1. Before you start, step back, and think about what you’re trying to achieve before you commit time and budget to your community. Consider these questions:
a) Why are you starting a community?
b) What are your goals, both quantifiable and qualifiable?
c) Who are you targeting?
d) What can you offer your users?
e) What will attract them initially to your site?
f) What will keep them coming back?

2. Do the community services and tone align with your brand’s objectives and strategy? If your brand is all about high-quality, luxury products, make sure that the services you provide and the tone you use with your audience reflects that. For example, providing a virtual world with a flashy design may not match your audience if you are building a community for the lovers of classical music. It's an extreme example, but it's essential to keep your target audience's needs in mind.

3. Make sure your audience will understand the purpose of your community, and are able to get what they want out of it. You will be defining your community through your choice of platform, design, graphics, language, products, signposting, structure, User Interface, navigation, terms of service, and the list goes on.... Users of online communities vote with their feet (or their mouse), and you want to ensure that they have a positive experience.

4. Test your idea with your target group. This could be the best research you’ve ever undertaken. If you already engage with people in the audience group you want your community to target, open a conversation with them through other channels (your blog, forums, online research, Twitter, or by running a focus group). Help them help you develop the community. If your users have bought into the idea at its development stage, they’re much more likely to bring other people in with them. Be open to change at this stage of the development, and be honest with yourself. If it’s not right, much better to know now so you can make the necessary changes.

5. Commit resource from within your brand to developing the community. This should never be an addendum to someone’s objectives. You’ll need a dedicated resource to build and lead the community, particularly at the beginning of the project when it will need constant nurturing. This resource can either be internal, or can be outsourced to a company that specialises in Community Management

6. Plan the logistics of the community carefully. Is it easy for users to sign up? Can they recommend a friend to join? Can they talk to an administrator to give feedback? Is the site easy to navigate? While design and look is important, it shouldn’t be at the expense of functionality. The site must be easy to use.

7. Listen to feedback and act on it. Feedback from your members is vital to the ongoing growth and development of your community. People could be talking about functionality, moderation, design, products, or even your brand. Dedicating time to review and act upon this information will not only strengthen your community, but can provide valuable information about your brand.

8. Remain flexible, and monitor your community closely. Communities mirror real life. Imagine you’re at a party, and you start a conversation with a small group of people. The conversation is likely to develop – and often in a direction you couldn’t foresee. Now imagine that you stilt that conversation’s development, by constantly forcing people to return to your original subject. Pretty soon, that group will leave you, and will be talking somewhere else. Review the objectives of your community regularly.

9. Draft your terms of service, and get expert advice on how to do this. Make sure there are no legal holes in your community that could put your users at risk, or give your brand a liability headache. Make sure the terms are not written in ‘legalese’ but are plain speaking, straightforward and easy for your members to understand.

10. Put in place a plan to manage and moderate the community. Take the time to consult experienced professionals (inside or external to your company) to put in place moderator guidelines which are comprehensive and realistic, with a clear and effective workflow. Plan for emergency out-of-hours escalations (think bomb threats and server failure - worst case scenarios do occasionally happen). Don’t underestimate the time and effort this takes, and be prepared to spend the first few months fine-tuning these with your moderation team.

11. Plan to promote your community. Although word-of-mouth is one of the best forms of marketing, by itself it isn’t enough. Ensure you have a robust marketing plan. This could include spending time seeding the community, making sure you can be found by search engines, encouraging early members to bring in their friends, and listing yourself with the relevant online directories. Also, think about where else your target audience can be found. With the correct approach, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube are great social media platforms that you can utilize to promote your own community.

In our next post, we’ll focus on the next stage of community development: once your community’s up and running: the best ways to engage users within the community. We’d love to hear your feedback on the series so far. If there’s any particular issue you’d like us to address, please let us know on the comment section of this blog.

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