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Internet Watch Foundation

IWF

The Internet Watch Foundation provides a global hotline to remove online child sexual abuse material.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Maria Walsh (Member of the European Parliament)

16 Jan 2026 · AI Deepfakes

Meeting with Laura Ballarín Cereza (Member of the European Parliament)

15 Jan 2026 · Protection of minors online

Meeting with Veronika Cifrová Ostrihoňová (Member of the European Parliament)

14 Jan 2026 · Child sexual abuse regulation

Meeting with Maria Guzenina (Member of the European Parliament)

17 Nov 2025 · Tackling CSAM

Meeting with Jeroen Lenaers (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

30 Oct 2025 · Child Sexual abuse directive

Meeting with Michael Mcnamara (Member of the European Parliament)

29 Oct 2025 · AI Chatbots

Meeting with Christel Schaldemose (Member of the European Parliament)

14 Oct 2025 · CSA

Meeting with Hilde Vautmans (Member of the European Parliament)

20 Mar 2025 · Legislation combatting Child abuse

Meeting with Christel Schaldemose (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

19 Mar 2025 · online safety, the protection of minors

Meeting with Veronika Cifrová Ostrihoňová (Member of the European Parliament)

19 Mar 2025 · Protection of minors online

IWF urges EU to criminalise AI-generated child abuse material

21 May 2024
Topic — A review of EU rules to combat online and offline child sexual abuse.
Message — The IWF calls for the Directive to explicitly include AI-generated imagery within abuse definitions. They also advocate for the removal of outdated terminology and aligned criminal penalties.123
Why — New definitions allow the group to more effectively remove realistic AI-generated abuse material.45
Impact — Perpetrators using artificial intelligence tools to create abusive imagery face expanded criminal liability.6
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Meeting with Alexandra Geese (Member of the European Parliament) and DOT Europe and

29 Jun 2023 · IMCO Hearing: online safety for minors

Meeting with Heléne Fritzon (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur for opinion)

9 Mar 2023 · Möte med Internet Watch Foundation

Meeting with Abir Al-Sahlani (Member of the European Parliament)

8 Feb 2023 · sexuell exploatering av barn online

Meeting with Paul Tang (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and Thorn and Discord Inc.

8 Feb 2023 · Staff Level: Policy Breakfast: Combining Forces to Combat Child Harm Online

Meeting with Heléne Fritzon (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur for opinion) and Google and

12 Jan 2023 · Rundabordssamtal

Meeting with Paul Tang (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur) and Google and

12 Jan 2023 · Closed door stakeholders meeting on Child Sexual Abuse Regulation with MEP Alex Agius Saliba and MEP Helene Fritzon

Meeting with Niyazi Kizilyürek (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur for opinion)

5 Dec 2022 · CSAM- Child sexual abuse

Meeting with Javier Zarzalejos (Member of the European Parliament, Rapporteur)

5 Dec 2022 · Meeting with the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), to discuss the proposal on preventing and combating child sexual abuse online

Meeting with Paul Tang (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

30 Sept 2022 · Staff Level: Child Sexual Abuse Regulation

Meeting with Niyazi Kizilyürek (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur for opinion)

21 Sept 2022 · CSAM- Child sexual abuse

Internet Watch Foundation urges protection for voluntary abuse detection

11 Sept 2022
Topic — New EU rules mandating online service providers to detect and report child sexual abuse.
Message — The IWF seeks legal certainty for companies to continue using voluntary tools to find and remove child abuse. They warn against a harmful gap in legislation that might stop firms from reporting content during the transition period.12
Why — This ensures the organization’s technical detection tools remain central to global industry safety efforts.3
Impact — Children are left at risk if a regulatory gap leads to fewer reports and removals.4
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Meeting with Abir Al-Sahlani (Member of the European Parliament)

5 Jul 2022 · Kampen mot exploatering av barn online

Meeting with Ylva Johansson (Commissioner) and

2 Jun 2022 · The participant’s and the EU efforts to prevent and tackle child sexual abuse.

Meeting with Catharina Rinzema (Member of the European Parliament) and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited and its various subsidiaries

31 May 2022 · Child safety online

Response to Update of the Better Internet for Children Strategy (BIK Strategy)

28 Oct 2021

1.1 The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is an international hotline based in the UK, funded by the internet industry and European Commission, which provides a secure and anonymous place for 2.5 billion people globally to report suspected child sexual abuse material in their local language. If these reports are confirmed as CSAM, our analysts work to have that imagery removed from the internet - wherever it may be hosted in the world. 1.2 The IWF’s vision is an internet free from child sexual abuse and we are a charity that works in partnership with the technology industry, law enforcement (including Europol), the European Commission and other Government’s globally to achieve that aim. 1.3 The technical tools and services we provide help to keep technology companies platforms and services free from CSAM. The IWF has over 170 Members from the internet industry who deploy our services to combat the spread of CSAM on their platforms. 1.4 Along with 45 other hotlines around the world, the IWF is part of the International Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE) and through our role as the UK Safer Internet Centre are also part of the Insafe Network, the European network of Awareness Centres promoting a safer internet. 1.5 In 2020, more than half (57%) of all the unique child sexual abuse URLs exchanged through INHOPE’s database in 2020 were identified by the IWF. 1.6 In 2020, the IWF assessed and removed 153,383 reports confirmed as containing CSAM. This was a 16% increase from 2019. Each report can contain from one to thousands of individual images or videos, so this equates to millions removed that year. Recommendations Update the Better Internet for Kids Strategy to account for new and emerging threats to children online, particularly in light of the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. Replace the EU Directive 2011/93 with a Regulation to resolve many of the current transposition issues. Member States should ensure that children are given constructive education about healthy relationships in a digital age and online safety, and should ensure that teachers are properly equipped to deliver this. Continue funding Safer Internet Centres and Safer Internet Day throughout Europe to deliver key educational messages and resources. Introduce age verification for adult websites. More information and detail can be found in our attached response.
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Response to Combating child sexual abuse

26 Oct 2021

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is an international hotline based in the UK, funded by the internet industry and European Commission, which provides a secure and anonymous place for 2.5 billion people globally to report suspected child sexual abuse material in their local language through the 48 reporting portals we operate around the world. If these reports are confirmed as CSAM, our analysts work to have that imagery removed from the internet- wherever it may be hosted in the world. The IWF is also the only hotline in Europe currently permitted to proactively search for child sexual abuse images and videos. The IWF’s vision is an internet free from child sexual abuse and we are a charity that works in partnership with the technology industry, law enforcement (including Europol), the European Commission and other Government’s globally to achieve that aim. The technical tools and services we provide help to keep technology companies platforms and services free from CSAM. The IWF has over 170 Members from the internet industry who deploy our services to combat the spread of CSAM on their platforms. Along with 45 other hotlines around the world, the IWF is part of the International Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE) and through our role as the UK Safer Internet Centre are also part of the Insafe Network, the European network of Awareness Centres promoting a safer internet. In 2020, more than half (57%) of all the unique child sexual abuse URLs exchanged through INHOPE’s database in 2020 were identified by the IWF. In 2020, the IWF assessed and removed 153,383 reports confirmed as containing CSAM. This was a 16% increase from 2019. Each report can contain from one to thousands of individual images or videos, so this equates to millions removed that year. Given our role in removing millions of images and videos containing child sexual abuse every year, the IWF’s welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback to aid the Commission’s review of Directive 2011/93. We would recommend that the Commission pursue Option 4: New legislation on prosecuting offenders, protecting victims and preventing offences plus non-legislative measures. This is because we believe that the current directive should be replaced by a Regulation. In the past decade, new trends and emerging threats related to CSAM that have developed and as the European Commission stated in its roadmap consultation on a more effective fight to combat child sexual abuse, there are several EU Member States who are not currently implementing the current directive. One of the benefits of moving towards a regulation would be that member states would have to comply with a regulation. We also believe that this problem cannot be solved simply through legislation, but that educational programmes and support from a variety of stakeholders (including industry and civil society) are essential in eradicating online CSAM and in enabling children to use the internet safely. It is essential that the EU prioritises tackling CSAM more than ever – we have seen that Europe has become the global hotspot for hosting this illegal content. In 2020, over 86% of the 153,383 webpages assessed and removed by the IWF were hosted in Europe and 77% were hosted in the Netherlands. Further details on our submission are contained within the attached file and we would also refer to our previous response to the European Commission's roadmap consultation on an EU Strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse for further reference.
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Meeting with Ylva Johansson (Commissioner) and

1 Oct 2020 · Tackling child sexual abuse online

Meeting with Lena Düpont (Member of the European Parliament, Shadow rapporteur)

16 Jul 2020 · Child protection online

Response to EU strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse

3 Jul 2020

Please find attached a PDF document which sets out the IWF's position and response to the roadmap consultation document on an EU Strategy to fight child sexual abuse.
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Meeting with Laure Chapuis-Kombos (Cabinet of Vice-President Andrus Ansip)

16 Oct 2015 · DSM and the Internet Watch Foundation

Meeting with Jasmin Battista (Cabinet of Vice-President Andrus Ansip)

25 Feb 2015 · Hotlines in the fight against child sexual abuse images