A report published today by the Audit Commission shows that downloading pornography now represents nearly 50 per cent of all cases of IT abuse across public sector services.
The commission has called for software to be installed urgently in all public sector computers to prevent users from accessing pornographic sites. It gives warning that once staff gain access to some of these websites they can be tempted into more dangerous and illegal areas such as child abuse images, says a report in The Times today.
Last August the Department for Work and Pensions revealed that 16 civil servants had been sacked and more than 200 disciplined for downloading pornography.
Officials investigating the internet use of their 140,000 employees discovered that 2.3 million pages of pornographic material had been called up over eight months. These included 18,000 images and sites apparently depicting child abuse images.
Highlighting this very issue, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) recently launched its ‘Wipe it Out’ campaign to stamp out the downloading and distribution of indecent images of children in the workplace.
The initiative comes on the back of alarming research conducted by the IWF, which revealed that 74 per cent of companies surveyed would not report employees caught downloading indecent images of children to the police, even though this could be a criminal offence.
The survey of 200, UK IT managers also found that nearly 40 per cent of companies would not even take steps to discipline or dismiss such an employee.
In order to encourage employers to take action, the law was recently changed to empower IT managers to combat illegal images found on their servers or on employee’s electronic devices.
Section 46 of The Sexual Offences Act 2003, now provides a conditional defence which protects IT professionals who, in their day-to-day management of electronic networks and services, may locate indecent images of children. Such staff can now copy and store such images as evidence, in order for the content to be assessed by a ‘relevant’ body either a UK law enforcement agency or the IWF.
Peter Robbins, IWF CEO:
“There is really is no excuse for employers not to have a policy in place which directly addresses the issue of potentially illegal child abuse images in the workplace. IT Managers and CEO’s should feel reassured this legislation is in place to help them operate within the law, protect their employees and company and help to minimise criminal activities such as viewing and distributing these illegal images.
Employers should also be aware that the age of a ‘child’ depicted in indecent images has increased from 16 to 18 years of age.”
Even though the legislation has been in place for a year this May, this latest research from the IWF also revealed that 80 per cent of IT managers are still not aware of the amendments to the Act and how the legislation relates to them or their organisation.
The IWF developed the 'Wipe it Out' campaign with the endorsement of the Home Office, ACPO, the CPS and ISPA and recently distributed awareness material to over 3,000 IT Managers in England and Wales.
The IWF is hosting an event on this topic on Wednesday 17th June in Central London where Home Office Minister Paul Goggins and the Deputy Director General of the National Crime Squad will be speaking amongst the speakers. A ‘Best Practice’ guide for dealing with indecent images of children in the workplace will be launched at this event.
For more information on this event please click here.
The IWF is the only organisation in the UK, which provides an internet hotline for the public to report their exposure to potentially illegal content online. The service is conducted online via the IWF website, www.iwf.org.uk and includes step by step instructions and the option to submit a report anonymously. The IWF Internet Content Analysts are specially trained by the Police to assess potentially illegal internet content according to the UK law. The hotline team liaise closely with the relevant Law Enforcement Agencies in the UK and overseas, as well as foreign hotlines around the world, to trace illegal online content.
