The "Wipe it Out" campaign follows research by the group
suggesting that 74% of 200 companies surveyed would not report
staff found downloading child porn to the police, while almost 40%
would not even discipline or dismiss the guilty party.
This is despite the fact that such downloading is illegal – any
individuals convicted of intentionally downloading paedophilic
material for reasons unrelated to the law can be liable for up to
10 years imprisonment – while recent changes to the law have
clarified the tricky management question of how to deal with such
images when they are found on company networks.
Until recently,
IT
professionals and managers
risked prosecution for viewing indecent images of children, even
when in the course of the day-to-day management of electronic
networks and services.
But the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which came into force in May
last year, introduced a conditional defence in order to protect IT
professionals who may need to "make", download and save potentially
illegal child abuse images, as evidence, in order for the content
to be assessed by either a Law Enforcement Agency or other
'relevant' body such as the IWF.
However the IWF research shows that 80% of IT managers are still
not aware of the changes in the law and how the legislation relates
to them or their organisation.
"The research has confirmed our expectations that a majority of
IT
managers are in fact uninformed of the correct
procedure to follow, rather than being unwilling to sit up and
act," said Peter Robbins,
CEO
of the
IWF
.
"The research highlights that it is vital that any organisation
providing internet access to employees understands how to deal with
these types of images. Their policies must be in line with current
UK legislation and internal procedures should be clearly explained
to staff, including consequences for transgression," he added.
"Once an appropriate Acceptable Internet Use Policy is in place, we
believe that IT managers will have no hesitation in reporting their
findings to the police or a law enforcement agency".
To further the campaign, the
IWF
is writing to over
3,000
IT
managers around the
UK
and will
be holding a conference for senior managers in central London in
June.
