IWF's aim is to minimise the availability of potentially illegal internet content, specifically:

• child abuse images hosted anywhere in the world

• criminally obscene content hosted in the UK

• criminally racist content hosted in the UK

The IWF work in partnership with UK Government Departments such as the Home Office and the Department of Trade and Industry to influence initiatives and programmes developed to combat online abuse. This dialogue goes beyond the UK and Europe, to ensure greater awareness of global issues and responsibilities.

The IWF are funded by the EU and the UK internet industry including Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Mobile Operators and manufacturers, Content Service Providers (CSPs) and telecommunications & software companies.

Through the hotline reporting system, the IWF help ISPs to combat abuse of their services through a 'notice and take down' service by alerting them to any potentially illegal content on their systems and simultaneously inviting the police to investigate the publisher.