Archive for the ‘Internet’ Category


Three-fold increase of abuse imagery of 7-10-year-olds as IWF detects more child sexual abuse material online than ever before

January 13th, 2022 by Roger Darlington

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) is the UK body established by industry to combat child abuse images online. It has just published its annual report and the headline messages are: Record amount of child sexual abuse material taken down after action by IWF. More reports investigated in 2021 than in the whole first 15 years […]

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Why has it taken so long for the UK to move on regulation of the Internet?

February 13th, 2020 by Roger Darlington

For six years (2000-2005), I was the first independent Chair of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), an industry-funded body which combats illegal content, primarily child abuse images, online. We had significant success, certainly in eliminating the hosting of child abuse images in the UK. However, I was concerned that there was other material online which, […]

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Online connectivity and confidence still a work in progress

July 19th, 2019 by Roger Darlington

This week, I attended an event at the British Library organised by the communications regulator Ofcom under the title “Making Sense Of Media”. At this occasion, Ofcom launched a Making Sense Of Media Network and a Making Sense Of Media Advisory Panel. The proportion of non-users of the Internet in the UK is unchanged since […]

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“Observer” journalist Carole Cadwalladr calls out the tech giants in this TED talk

April 22nd, 2019 by Roger Darlington

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How fast is your broadband?

March 29th, 2019 by Roger Darlington

This week, I chaired a meeting of the Consumer forum for Communications at the headquarters of the communications regulator Ofcom. One of the presentations was from Ofcom staff on the subject of superfast broadband (SFBB). Superfast broadband is defined as a service offering a download speed of at least 30 megabits per second (Mbit/s). We […]

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The challenge of combatting child abuse images online

March 21st, 2019 by Roger Darlington

For six years [see my reported here], I was the first independent Chair of the Internet Watch Foundation which acts to remove child abuse images which appear on the Internet. So I was more than usually interested to hear a short presentation by the current IWF Chair Andrew Puddephatt at this week’s Westminster eForum on […]

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Time to bring Facebook to book

February 18th, 2019 by Roger Darlington

“Facebook is an out-of-control train wreck that is destroying democracy and must be brought under control. The final report of parliament’s inquiry into fake news and disinformation does not use this language, precisely, but it is, nonetheless, the report’s central message. And the language it does use is no less damning. Facebook behaves like a “digital gangster”. […]

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Why has it taken us so long to address the issue of harmful content on the Internet?

February 8th, 2019 by Roger Darlington

It’s good to hear that the news that Instagram is now going to remove self-harm images and encouragement to suicide from its service. But why has it taken so long and why is the industry not adopting a more comprehensive approach to harmful content of different kinds? Almost two decades ago, I became the first […]

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Are you sometimes confused by text or online chat abbreviations? np

January 28th, 2019 by Roger Darlington

From A3 to ZZZ, this guide lists 1,500 text message and online chat abbreviations to help you translate and understand today’s texting lingo. The guide starts with a top ten.

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The regulation of Internet content – my 100th and last IT column

November 19th, 2018 by Roger Darlington

For the past 16 years, I have written a regular column on information technology for a trade union representing professional and managerial staff in telecommunications and broadcasting. Now that I am 70 and my portfolio career is coming to an end, I’ve decided to call a halt to this exercise and I have just submitted […]

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