Wiltshire training company helps keep children safe online

A Wiltshire company has joined the fight against online child sex abuse by delivering free training to an internet watchdog.

Technical training company Framework Training, based near Marlborough, has supported the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) by training two of its new recruits in the computer language C#. More training could be in the pipeline.

The IWF is committed to making the internet a safer place, by identifying and removing global online child sexual abuse imagery. It searches the internet for criminal images and videos and, using a ground-breaking tool built by its tech teams, grades them. This generates a unique ‘hash’ (digital fingerprint or label) which is used to identify and eliminate these images wherever they appear. Once an image has been hashed, it can be recognised quickly, and the IWF Hash List can block thousands of criminal images and videos from ever being uploaded in the first place. 

Framework Training specialises in delivering expert, instructor-led, hands-on technical training. It is a certified B Corp, part of a global movement of businesses which pledge to ensure the social and environmental impact of what they do is prioritised ahead of profit. This commitment includes providing discounted training to the UK’s not-for-profit organisations. For the IWF, the training was provided free of charge.

“Helping charitable, not-for-profit, governmental and public-owned organisations accounts for almost a third of our training activities and wherever possible we take into account the limited budgets typically available to them,” said Ian Watson, Framework Training’s Managing Director.

“When the IWF approached us to help, we had a gap in our calendar so were able to run their training free of charge. They do an important job in helping to rid the internet of appalling online content, and we were very happy to play a small part in supporting them in this.”

Chris Wilson, Head of Software Development with the IWF, said: “We are grateful to Framework Training for providing this course for our delegates. We were impressed with how interested they were in the work we do and the specific technology we use to help protect children online, and they tailored their training to our specific needs.”

Following the training, the IWF’s two new joiners now have the required level of experience in using C# for their work.

For more information about Framework Training, visit https://www.frameworktraining.co.uk/. More details of the work of the Internet Watch Foundation are at https://www.iwf.org.uk/.