The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Children's Online Safety
The APPG on Children's Online Safety is committed to safeguarding children in the digital age.
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UK policy work
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is the UK’s leading organisation dedicated to identifying, removing, and preventing access to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online.
Since our founding in 1996, the UK has gone from hosting 18% of the world’s known CSAM to less than 1%, a figure that has remained consistently low since 2003.
We are one of the few organisations globally with the legal authority to proactively search for illegal content. Our analysts work swiftly and securely to protect children from further victimisation, supported by formal agreements with UK law enforcement.
We engage with policy makers, legislators, and regulators in the UK to create and implement legislation and policy that effectively protect, prevent, and combat child sexual abuse online, while promoting strong safeguards for safety and wellbeing online for all.
We also work within the EU and internationally to share best practices and advocate for stronger protections for children online.
In March 2025, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Rt Hon Peter Kyle MP, visited the IWF to see for himself the scale and severity of online sexual abuse against children.
Our policy priorities
We advocate for a robust legal and regulatory framework to detect, report, and remove CSAM online, and to hold platforms accountable for harmful content. Our UK priorities include:
Implementation of the Online Safety Act
We support full and ambitious implementation of the Online Safety Act, ensuring platforms are held legally accountable for detecting, removing, and preventing the spread of CSAM. We support efforts to strengthen enforcement and ensure platforms meet their duties under the Illegal Harms and Protection of Children Codes.
Tackling CSAM in end-to-end encrypted environments
Platforms must deploy upload prevention technologies and ensure proactive detection is technically feasible. We call for additional legislation to ensure end-to-end encrypted services are not safe havens for CSAM.
Preventing AI-Generated CSAM
We advocate for urgent action to criminalise the creation and distribution of AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery, including nudify apps and generative AI tools used to simulate sexual communications. We support the measures introduced via the Crime and Policing Bill and call for a regulatory framework that embeds safety by design in AI development.
Addressing tech-facilitated Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG)
In 2024, as in previous years, most of the child sexual abuse imagery seen in IWF reports showed girls only, and this number is increasing.
It is vital that the efforts to halve Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) include clear and deliverable objectives to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse, with all government departments playing their part.
Promoting highly effective age assurance
We call for multi-level age assurance across platforms and operating systems to prevent children from accessing harmful content. Platforms must implement technically accurate, robust, and reliable age checks and enforce minimum age requirements in their terms of service.
All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Children's Online Safety
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Children's Online Safety is a cross-party coalition of MPs and Members of the House of Lords committed to making the internet a safer place for children. The group works collaboratively to influence policy, raise awareness, and drive legislative change that protects young people from online harms.
Since November 2020, the IWF has proudly served as the secretariat for the APPG. We support its work by providing expert resources, coordinating events, and facilitating dialogue between parliamentarians, civil society, and industry leaders.
Learn more by visiting the APPG’s website.
Contact us at [email protected] to get involved or request further information.
Work With Us
The IWF brings unmatched expertise and data to help shape UK policy that protects children online.
- To learn more about our UK policy work, contact our Policy and Public Affairs team at [email protected]
- To work together on press engagement in the UK, contact our press team at [email protected]
Here you can view the IWF Annual Data & Insights Report 2024, which delves into and explores the intelligence gathered in 2024 through the assessment of child sexual abuse images and videos on the internet.