Safety & Security

As part of our commitment to helping protect internet users, we work with a number of organisations in the UK, including government departments, law enforcement bodies and industry groups.

Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre

AOL is a founding partner of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, which launched in April 2006. The CEOP Centre brings together law enforcement officers with specialists from children’s charities and the internet industry to work in unison to tackle the growing problem of child abuse.

The CEOP Centre provides a dedicated 24/7 resource for reporting instances of online child sex abuse, systems to track sex offenders and to disseminate intelligence globally, and online awareness tools and offline education materials to encourage children to use the internet safely.

Department of Trade and Industry

Unsolicited email – commonly known as spam – is no longer just an annoyance to internet users and a threat to business, it is also increasingly a vehicle for trans-national crime and other illegal activities on a global scale. As part of AOL's anti-spam efforts, we engage in regular discussions with the Department of Trade and Industry on this subject.

Home Office

The Home Office Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet was established in March 2001 in response to concerns about the possible online risks to children. The Task Force brings together representatives of the internet industry (including AOL), children’s charities, the main opposition parties, government departments, law enforcement, academics and other stakeholders.

Internet Content Rating Association

For content that is legal but may be unsuitable for children or offensive to certain groups, filtering products enable consumers to make their own choices as to whether they or their children access this content. AOL subscribers in the UK can take advantage of built-in parental controls, which enable parents to determine their child’s level of internet access based on their age and maturity.

AOL supports the Internet Content Rating Association, which is developing a voluntary international self-rating and filtering system.

Internet Crime Forum

AOL is a member of the Internet Crime Forum, a group composed of internet providers, law enforcement and data protection officers. In the area of internet crime investigation in the UK, we recognise the need for law enforcement to access pertinent data about internet users held by providers in legitimate criminal investigations.

Internet Service Providers Association

The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA UK) is the UK's trade association for providers of internet services. Established in 1995, ISPA UK promotes competition, self-regulation and the development of the internet industry. As a member of ISPA UK, AOL abides by the ISPA UK code of good business practice.

Internet Watch Foundation

AOL is a member of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the only authorised organisation in the UK operating an internet ‘hotline’ for the public to report their exposure to potentially illegal child abuse images hosted on the internet anywhere in the world, and criminally obscene and racist content hosted in the UK. The IWF is funded by the EU and the UK internet industry including internet service providers (ISPs), mobile operators and manufacturers, content service providers (CSPs) and telecommunications and software companies.

As a result of the IWF’s self-regulatory, partnership approach, only 0.4 per cent of child abuse content on the internet is now hosted in the UK, down from 18 per cent in 1997.

Virtual Global Taskforce

The Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT), which was set up in 2003, is an international partnership of police forces working together to protect children from online child abuse. Its mission is to make the internet a safer place; identify, locate and help children at risk; and hold perpetrators appropriately to account.

AOL is a founding partner of the Virtual Global Taskforce website, which has received over 21 million hits since its launch in January 2005. AOL provides links to the VGT website so that internet users can report inappropriate or illegal activity with or towards a child online.