Internet Watch Foundation
Caring for our staff
IWF may operate in a highly advanced technological world, but it’s the expertise and experience of our analysts that sets us apart. We give all our staff the flexibility and reassurance they need to manage their home and work life.
- All new analysts go through a specially developed induction training programme to help them mentally process and cope with exposure to disturbing images.
- Our analysts’ working hours are restricted; they take regular timetabled breaks and are encouraged to take more breaks as and when they need.
- All our staff work shorter days to ensure their personal lives don’t suffer, and we don’t allow analysts to work overtime.
- Each month our analysts have individual mandatory counselling sessions and all employees who see criminal imagery have an annual full psychological assessment.
- Everyone who works for us is offered counselling support.
We work in partnership with internet service providers, telecommunication companies, mobile operators, software providers, the police, Government, the public, other NGOs and charities to minimise the availability of child sexual abuse images and videos online. Our tech-for-good solutions make the internet safer for everyone to use and help children move on from their traumatic experiences.
Our values
The backbone of the IWF
We were created to protect children online.Â
It’s a huge responsibility to have the job of searching for, stopping, removing and preventing online child sexual abuse imagery. We don’t take this lightly. Our values act as our backbone, our core strength, a guide and a reminder of the importance of our work. They are embedded in everything we do.Â
Being open and honest
- We treat every child victim of sexual abuse with the utmost and total respect;
- We always act with integrity and professionalism;
- We make sure our communications and actions are appropriate, true, transparent and accountable.
Being excellent
- Every day we strive to be the best in the world at what we do;
- We set the global standard of best practice;
- We build tech-for-good tools to help defend child victims of sexual abuse. We make the internet a safer place, by:
- Protecting child survivors of sexual abuse from being victimised again and again. By stopping offenders from sharing pictures and videos of the abuse online, we’re making it more difficult for these criminals to perpetuate the abuse;
- Preventing internet users from accidentally stumbling on child sexual abuse images and videos;
- We make it harder for criminals to find child sexual abuse imagery online, by disrupting the illegal sharing.
Being team players
- Working together is vital. We always acknowledge the importance of partnerships.
- We recognise, reward and celebrate our success and achievements. If we win, so do children.
Creating a caring and safe internal environment
- Respecting and encouraging individuals’ contributions is important to us. We want them to be IWF heroes;
- A supportive environment is vital for people who work to protect children. We promote best-practice welfare for our staff who are committed to stopping the spread of child sexual abuse imagery;
- We encourage constant learning and personal development. It helps people thrive. It’s good for us all.
