ISPs told to grasp the nettle on illegal porn

NEWS Speaking on silicon.com's Behind the Headlines programme, Chris Setz, chairman of the NPA, said he believes the existing watchdog - the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) - isn't up to the job of policing child pornography and laid the blame squarely at the feet of individual ISPs. He said: "It seems to me that if there is a watch foundation and a lot of child porn out there, then the foundation isn't working. It's only the ISPs at the sharp end who can do something about it and they should." However, much of the material comes from across the world, argued fellow panellist Thomas Power, Chief Knowledge Officer at Ecademy, and only a global solution could really deal with a global problem. He said: "It's global network management. It's the beginning of global government." Roland Perry, CEO of ISP carrier Linx, defended the IWF as an effective safeguard, helping to keep newsgroups, if not the whole of the net, free of child pornography. He said: "There is a long standing arrangement for ISPs to effect a notice and take down procedure. The IWF was set up to be the vehicle for that notice and take down procedure. Currently, it works very well. "There is a tremendous economy of scale in doing it through a central organisation like the IWF, rather than every ISP having to employ people individually." Earlier this week, Thus - which owns Demon Internet - decided to take positive steps to remove all paedophilic material from its networks.