Google has donated £1m to the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) towards its work removing child sexual abuse content on the internet, days before a meeting with the UK government to explain how it is dealing with the availability of harmful content.
Last week the Culture Secretary Maria Miller invited Google (and YouTube, which it owns), Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook, BT, Virgin, Talk Talk, Vodafone, Sky, O2, EE and Three to a meeting next Monday (17 June) to find out what they are doing to police harmful content, such as pornographic or politically extremist content, and to push for a coordinated approach.
The donation, which is enough to run the charity for one year, will be spread over four years and used to fund five additional skilled analysts.
Susie Hargreaves, IWF CEO, said: “This is an incredibly generous donation and Google is demonstrating moral leadership in the field. This contribution will significantly boost our work to meet our vision eliminating online child sexual abuse content.”
She added: “The IWF’s work isn’t just about removing the content. Over the past two years we have helped identify and aid the rescue of 12 children from their abusers by working with the police in the UK and internationally.”
Scott Rubin, director of communications and public affairs at Google, said: “We have a zero-tolerance policy on child sexual abuse content. The IWF are essential partners in our fight to rid the internet of this illegal material by providing us with a list of web pages that we block from search results.”
In May the Home Affairs Select Committee criticised the amount of money Google, and others, give to the IWF. In 2012 Google donated £20,000 to the IWF as its annual membership fee – the £1m donation is on top of that.
Rubin added that: “This grant is part of a broader package of measures we are putting in place with other international agencies to help tackle this problem at a global scale."
MPs: Google's CSR no excuse for tax arrangements
Separately, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) published its report on Google’s tax arrangements today, which called on HMRC to fully investigate Google’s tax arrangements and the government to clarify the tax code.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast this morning, Margaret Hodge MP, chair of the PAC, said: “Google accepts the corporate social responsibility agenda in various ways: the way they treat their staff, the contribution they make to their community, the way they deal with their supply chain so they don’t exploit people in developing countries. They do that; they should also accept their moral responsibility to pay their fair share of tax on the money they make here in the UK.”
