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By Ron Coates, 22 February 2001 17:15

NEWS The IWF has come under fire for its lack of effectiveness in controlling illegal online content in the wake of Thus's decision to begin monitoring the newsgroups it hosts. Yesterday, Martino Corbelli, director of marketing at filtering tool firm Surf Control, told silicon.com that the IWF is too small for the job. "It is a small outfit trying its hardest to make an impact on a problem that is so huge in comparison to them that there is only so much they can do." But Roger Darlington, chairman of the IWF and head of research at the Communications Workers Union, said: "Since we were set up in late 1996 we have been responsible for the removal of some 26,000 images of child pornography from UK servers and assisted police in bringing successful prosecution of paedophiles." He pointed out that the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) had been described as 'a model internationally' in the government Communications White Paper. Darlington said that the IWF was a 'very effective model of self-regulation'. However, he admitted that the content monitoring body needs to do more work to raise the awareness of the problems of internet content - both criminal and offensive - and how parents, teachers and children can combat them. He said: "This will require more funding and we are already in discussion with a number of companies so that we can both deepen and broaden our funding base. I would be delighted to hear from any organisation that would like to work with us." IWF is funded by the two ISP industry bodies, ISPA and Linx, with additional backing from a number of top ISPs including BT Cellnet, Easynet, and Thus. It receives no funding from the children's charities, which are however represented on its board. It has rejected the idea of government funding as it wishes to remain independent. The organisation issues regular lists of illegal material appearing on websites, which is then removed by the various ISPs.