Online safety group urges Starmer to intervene over child sexual abuse imagery
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Sir Keir Starmer must intervene and strengthen incoming online safety rules after a record amount of child sexual abuse material was found on the internet in 2024, a leading online safety organisation has said. The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), which proactively searches for and helps remove child sexual abuse imagery from the internet, has written to the Prime Minister warning that without his input, platforms will have a “blatant get-out clause” to evade compliance with parts of the Online Safety Act, which is due to begin coming into force this year.
The IWF said the wording of codes of practice within the Act allows firms to remove illegal content only when it is “technically feasible”, and warns that this will incentivise platforms to avoid finding ways to remove illegal content in order to evade compliance.
The charity said Sir Keir was in a unique position to intervene because it was the Prime Minster, when previously head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), who had first authorised the IWF to start proactively hunting down abuse imagery on the internet.
We call on your Government to remove the safe harbour inadvertently offered to platforms – including those that facilitate the sharing of child sexual abuse material - by the Act. Writing to the Prime Minister, IWF chairwoman Catherine Brown said: “We are deeply concerned that the codes allow services to remove illegal content only when it is ‘technically feasible’, which will incentivise platforms to avoid finding ways to remove illegal content in order to evade compliance.
