Child Abuse on the Web

Child Abuse Images

The law on images of child abuse (sometimes wrongly referred to as: Child Pornography, Child Porn, Child Porno and Kiddie Porn) is clear. It is an offence to take, permit to be taken, make, possess, show, distribute or advertise indecent images of children in the United Kingdom.

As a guide, the word 'indecent' means any images of children, under 18 years of age, involved in a sexual pose or activity.

Internet Watch Foundation (IWF)

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:

• child sexual abuse images hosted anywhere in the world
• criminally obscene content hosted in the UK
• incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK

You can report online sexual abuseand content, as well as inappropriate chat or behaviour towards a child online, from the IWF website.

Please note it is against the law to actively seek out such images and doing so in order to report it would not be a defence in court.