Collaboration Platform BETA

Description

INHOPE has 15 years’ experience providing training, coordination of services, administration of a multi-component technology platform and network development for a global Internet hotline community. To meet the ever-changing needs of its members and the fast evolving landscape, INHOPE is seeking additional resources to develop its core activities in support of existing and future hotlines around the world.

With this project, INHOPE envisions enhancement of the following work streams in the next 5 years:
1. Technology development: This work-stream will draw upon the technical parameters of existing tools (IC-CAM and IHRMS) as well as new technical proposals developed by INHOPE and partners, and potentially upon existing available research made possible by external partners.

2. Research: This work-stream would seek to act upon existing planned activities to improve the exploitation of INHOPE network data, and to explore new ways to add value to the work of INHOPE globally. The three main streams of research could include:
2.1.1. Data and statistics: Building on the infographics and statistics research and publications of INHOPE, which are developed from a rich data repository that is fed by our member hotlines.
2.1.2. Qualitative research – Within the research work-stream, qualitative research can be particularly useful to gain a deeper knowledge of the current State of the Arts of hotlines and the challenges they face.
2.1.3. Action research/case studies

3. Global Development– This work-stream would contain global network development – managed by the INHOPE Foundation - and training and capacity building activities – managed by the INHOPE Association and Foundation. It would cover:

3.1.1. Hotline development and capacity building: This will include systematisation of the INHOPE Foundation’s experiences as well as continued refinement of these experience to support existing and potential new hotline organisations around the world. Adaptation, translation and development of new training materials in cooperation with global partners will also be part of this work stream.

3.1.2. Development of regional networks: As a truly global organisation, INHOPE engages with local cultures and realities and actively seeks to tailor its support to the needs of the diverse community with which it interacts, while ensuring coordinated action among members. One way of dealing with this challenge in a more efficient way is by developing more regional initiatives so that local hotlines can exchange experiences, challenges and Best Practices with new and established members in their regions, and thus, strengthen their regional expertise. Drawing on the experience, knowledge, resources and partnerships of existing hotlines in each region will help to build fluid cooperation frameworks to develop and support new hotlines. Not only practical, this is also an important step in efforts to realize INHOPE’s transition from a European network to a truly global network. Specific actions funded through this area would be: regional meetings, conferences and events; regional trainings and regional campaigns, led by INHOPE and/or in cooperation with existing global partners.

3.1.3 Training: INHOPE has been providing training since 1999, and its methods and topics of training continue to provide hotline analysts with the tools and skills necessary to achieve our shared mission. INHOPE aims to advance its online and offline training, and to localise these for different languages and cultures.

4. Administration & Finance: This is a cross-cutting work-stream that includes project management and budgetary oversight and donor relations, including monitoring and reporting.

5. Communications & dissemination: This is a cross-cutting work-stream that continues the strategic communications work already being delivered by INHOPE, but also covers any project-specific dissemination needs relating to the work-streams funded by this proposal. Specifically, this would include items design and printing of materials and some staff costs.

Alignment with the NETmundial Principles

HUMAN RIGHTS AND SHARED VALUES: Ensuring human rights such as Freedom of expression, Freedom of association and Freedom of information and access to information and Privacy while also upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is complex.

However, cooperation through the INHOPE network to remove CSAM from the Internet is built upon the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, as well as other international conventions such as the Lanzarote and Budapest Conventions.

As such, INHOPE represents a global community of experts dedicated to upholding the rights of the child.

CULTURE AND LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY: INHOPE promotes cultural and linguistic diversity by the promotion of national hotlines all over the world. Our practical experience of this diversity comes from 15 years of cooperation with our members across Europe, the Americas, Asia Pacific and Africa, and our first-hand experience of hotline development through the INHOPE Foundation. We understand that there is no ‘one-size fits all’ model, and we always give consideration to local as well as regional contexts when planning our work. We support this by facilitating the production in local languages of resources such as annual global statistics, best practice documents, hotline development materials, and campaign videos.

SECURITY, STABILITY AND RESILIENCE OF THE INTERNET: INHOPE helps address “risks and threats to security and stability” by providing a technological mechanism and established cooperation framework to address the inherent conflict between the borderless nature of information flows on the Internet and clearly delineated national jurisdictions to address cybercrime, including online child sexual exploitation and abuse.

ENABLING ENVIRONMENT FOR SUSTAINABLE INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY: INHOPE actively engages with this Principle by seeking shared solutions and working with technology, law enforcement and civil society partners to create the enabling environment for effective action against online child sexual exploitation and abuse.

OPEN STANDARDS: INHOPE engages with the idea that “Standards must be consistent with human rights and allow development and innovation. “ Specifically, membership of the INHOPE Association network requires compliance with a set of quality control standards and best practices relating to key issues including staff welfare and data privacy. At the same time, the coordinated actions of INHOPE to remove Child Sexual Abuse Material from the Internet and refer it to the relevant authorities are a direct contribution to upholding the rights of the child victims of abuse and exploitation, including the right not to be re-victimised by consumption of the digital evidence of their abuse.

Alignment with NETmundial Initiative's Mission & Scope

The mission of the NETmundial Initiative is to provide a platform that helps catalyze practical cooperation between all stakeholders in order to address Internet issues and advance the implementation of the NETmundial Principles and Roadmap.

INHOPE is a global network with strong and proven practical and strategic cooperation with stakeholders from all sectors to address Internet issues. Comprising two affiliated and fully interactive parts, INHOPE is:
1. The International Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE Association) – a membership association established in 1999 by the European Commission. Members must pay a membership fee and comply with the criteria for membership as laid down in the Articles of Association, including:
i. Provide a mechanism, other-than reporting channels provided by law enforcement agencies for receiving complaints from the public about alleged illegal content and/or use of the Internet
ii. Have effective transparent procedures for dealing with complaints
iii. Have the support of government, the online technology service provider industry, law enforcement
iv. Comply with the INHOPE Code of Practice

2. The INHOPE Foundation- a charitable foundation established in the Netherlands in 2010. It works hand-in-hand with the INHOPE Association through a Memorandum of Understanding to deliver network expansion and support hotline development in the Global South. It provides guidance and support to start-up hotlines and facilitates their eventual access to or integration in to the INHOPE Association network.
In recognition of the complexity of creating multi-sector collaboration against online CSAM in most if not all countries, the INHOPE Foundation works within multi-stakeholder partnerships to help create and build the essential enabling environment for hotlines. This means working with partners to address the legislative, political and socio-cultural base for assertive action against online CSAM.
The members of the INHOPE network are served and represented in international fora by the INHOPE Secretariat, which currently employs eight people and has its Headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Secretariat is currently comprised of:
1. Executive Director
2. Program Manager – European Commission Projects
3. Communications Manager
4. Technology and Database Manager
5. Training and Services Manager
6. Finance Manager
7. Global Partnerships and Development Manager
8. Hotline Development Manager (Manager of the INHOPE Foundation)


INHOPE and the added value of INHOPE is built upon its practical and agile cooperation between all stakeholders in order to respond to online child sexual abuse material and to tackle online child sexual exploitation.

Our new technology platform ICCAM, delivered in partnership with the European Commission and Interpol, symbolizes the way INHOPE is adapting to the changing reality of the Internet and the essential role of hotlines in tacking the online sexual abuse of children. Offering continuity in its existing system of URL referral to hosting country hotlines for local removal at source, the platform also facilitates the categorisation and hashing of content as a new and proven effective contribution to global victim identification efforts coordinated by Interpol.

Our partnerships with Industry also go from strength to strength, covering funding, strategic engagement, and technology. INHOPE also has strong and ever-developing relationships with civil society and international organisations working in this field.

In short, we are closing the virtual circle between hotlines and law enforcement, working closely with Industry to understand, support and benefit from their experiences fighting CSAM, and ensuring that we add value and do not duplicate the immense efforts of other civil society organisations around the world that are engaged in research, advocacy, policy development and many other aspects of the collaborative fight against online CSAM.

Project's #hashtag

#childonlineprotection, #ReportIt, #SID2016, #saferinternet, #StrongerTogether; #hotlines, #cybercrime, #humanrights, #childrights, #childrightsday, #netgov

Funding requirements

US$ 800,000