Through working closely with the online sector, the government and general public, the IWF aims to foster trust and confidence in the Internet among current and future users; assist service providers in combating the abuse of their systems and to assist law enforcement in the fight against online illegal content. The IWF operates a UK ’Hotline’, enabling the public and IT professionals to report any instances of potentially illegal content on the internet in order to remove it, prevent access to it and disrupt the activities of those operating such websites.

The IWF is the only recognised organisation in the UK operating an internet ’Hotline’ for the public and IT professionals to report their inadvertent exposure to potentially illegal content online.

Their aim is to minimise the availability of potentially illegal internet content, specifically, including child sexual abuse images hosted anywhere in the world; criminally obscene content hosted in the UK and incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK.

The IWF works in partnership with UK Government departments such as the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to influence initiatives and programmes developed to combat online abuse. This dialogue goes beyond the UK and Europe, to ensure greater awareness of global issues and responsibilities.

It is a self-regulatory body, funded by the EU and the wider online industry. This includes internet service providers (ISPs), mobile operators and manufacturers, content service providers, telecommunications and filtering companies, search providers and the financial sector as well as blue-chip and other organisations who support IWF for corporate social responsibility reasons.

In partnership with many organisations the IWF strives to create continued awareness of the role and purpose of the IWF and aims to foster trust and reassurance in the internet for current and future users.