Bigger Fires To Fight On The Way...
"Less child porn is hosted in the UK than in any other Western nation, and a high proportion of material that seeps through from abroad is quickly blocked."
So little, infact, it's becoming increasingly hard to even make the case for having the IWF. You can check the IWF's own reporting on the issue here: http://www.iwf.org.uk/documents/20080417_iwf_annual_report_2007_(web).pdf - and you'll see the UK plays host to practically no CP at all. So the IWF acts as policeman to the rest of the world..?
"Then, too, there is growing resentment of the way that the authorities have closed ranks to make debate on issues of child "safety" a taboo issue."
There is no discussion: there will be no dissent. Anyone who disagrees can find themselves vilified and humiliated as a potential enemy of 'right thinking people'. The media (Reg honourably excepted, of course) seem terminally disinclined to engage in any form of meaningful debate on the modern Inquisition and child protection scares, which all helps the government and judiciary rearrange the furniture just the way they want it without bothersome interference.
"Second, as a senior member of ISPA remarked recently, the IWF's efforts are costed and resourced according to what it does now. If a by-product of adverse publicity is a growing level of activist complaints designed to disrupt their working, they may find it difficult to cope, as well as find their operation exposed to greater and greater levels of public scrutiny."
I don't think we need to worry about that - the IWF have expressed disinterest at policing, say, 'extreme porn' websites (that is, unless they receive considerably more government money and staffing as an incentive to broaden their remit) and I doubt their corporate 'stakeholders' would have as much enthusiasm for funding the ferreting out of facsimile S&M bondage fantasies between consenting adults as they currently do for the PR-friendly business of Paedo hunting.
But the IWF will survive this little storm in a teacup: it's corporates are going to stick around as long as there's good mileage in their association with 'protecting kids'...so, for quite a while, then. For critics, I'd suggest there are bigger fires to fight: CEOP have their sights set on criminalising the 'possession' of cartoons, drawings and wholly CG imagery of an 'indecent' natures - no real people involved at all, folks (not even 'pseudo-photographic'). It's been in Parliamentary consultation since June of last year.
'Possession' of such material would result in prison sentences - CEOP are arguing for similar tariffs as those currently handed out for possessing actual photos of actual (real) kids. Coming to a law court near you soon.