§ Ms ShipleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what measures she has taken to encourage internet service providers to take action to contact child pornography websites. [158998]
§ Mr. TimmsThe Government support the work of the Internet Watch Foundation, which was established by the internet industry in consultation with Government. The Internet Watch Foundation works in partnership with internet service providers, telecommunications companies, mobile operators, software providers, police and Government, to minimise the availability of illegal internet content, particularly child abuse images. Their Internet Hotline deals with reports of potentially illegal internet content, such as websites, newsgroups and online groups that contain: images of child abuse anywhere in the world; adult material that potentially breaches the Obscene Publications Act in the UK; and criminally racist material in the UK.
One measure of the success of this self-regulatory approach is that less than 2 per cent. of the illegal content reported to the IWF relates to material hosted in the UK.