The Internet Watch Foundation announces portal against online child sexual abuse in Pakistan

Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) soft launched its child sexual abuse portal today, an online platform for reporting and removing online content related to child sexual abuse.

The portal was launched at the roundtable event titled Online Child Sexual Abuse in Pakistan: Solutions and Call to Action held in Islamabad today. The event was organised by the Digital Rights Foundation (DRF) in collaboration with IWF.

According to a press release by DRF, the portal will work with law enforcement, industry partners, DRF and its internet content analysts to identify, assess, report, seek removal and ‘hash’ criminal child sexual abuse imagery. It will also proactively search for child sexual abuse images and videos hosted in Pakistan and beyond.

Nighat Dad, executive director of DRF, hopes that the portal will bridge the existing gaps between child rights organisations in Pakistan, law enforcement agencies and international reporting mechanisms: "online child exploitation and abuse has been treated as a moral panic for a long time, however very little headway has been made by way of tangible efforts to understand and tackle this issue."

The Internet Watch Foundation is a not-for-profit body from the UK which has created online portals against child sexual abuse in 27 countries. The portal in Pakistan will be available in both English and Urdu.

The portal is scheduled to officially launch on the Digital Rights Foundation website this summer.