The "Wipe it Out" campaign follows research by the group suggesting that 74% of 200 companies surveyed would not report staff found downloading child porn to the police, while almost 40% would not even discipline or dismiss the guilty party.
This is despite the fact that such downloading is illegal – any individuals convicted of intentionally downloading paedophilic material for reasons unrelated to the law can be liable for up to 10 years imprisonment – while recent changes to the law have clarified the tricky management question of how to deal with such images when they are found on company networks.
Until recently, IT professionals and managers risked prosecution for viewing indecent images of children, even when in the course of the day-to-day management of electronic networks and services.
But the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which came into force in May last year, introduced a conditional defence in order to protect IT professionals who may need to "make", download and save potentially illegal child abuse images, as evidence, in order for the content to be assessed by either a Law Enforcement Agency or other 'relevant' body such as the IWF.
However the IWF research shows that 80% of IT managers are still not aware of the changes in the law and how the legislation relates to them or their organisation.
"The research has confirmed our expectations that a majority of IT managers are in fact uninformed of the correct procedure to follow, rather than being unwilling to sit up and act," said Peter Robbins, CEO of the IWF.
"The research highlights that it is vital that any organisation providing internet access to employees understands how to deal with these types of images. Their policies must be in line with current UK legislation and internal procedures should be clearly explained to staff, including consequences for transgression," he added. "Once an appropriate Acceptable Internet Use Policy is in place, we believe that IT managers will have no hesitation in reporting their findings to the police or a law enforcement agency".
To further the campaign, the IWF is writing to over 3,000 IT managers around the UK and will be holding a conference for senior managers in central London in June.