The Internet Watch Foundation Urges Young Men: Do the Right Thing

Research says that young men (aged 18-35) are most likely to stumble across child sexual abuse content and least likely to report it. So, working with London creative agency Don’t Panic!, the IWF have set about trying to get the message across to this group.

They’ve got a presence on a number of key online channels including online lads’ mags, music sites, sports sites, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter for the few couple of months. Take a look at www.do-the-right-thing.org.uk and the Facebook Page and Twitter account @TheRightThingUK for the campaign.

The campaign aims to be:

• Targeted: Honing in on the specific interests of the target group, and using word play to link their interests to the IWF.
• Relevant: Using up to-the-minute sporting events and music events.
• Evidenced: Conforming strictly to the IWF’s research which highlighted who is most likely to stumble across child sexual abuse content and what their interests are.
• Inclusive: It will enable as many IWF Members as possible to get involved – should they want to.
• Tested: The final creative was informed by a focus group of the target audience
• Empowering: The creative is aiming to be“enabling”;  designed so that the target group feel enabled and empowered to report to the IWF.  The whole campaign is aimed at reducing the fear of reporting, and the fear of the content, or shame at having seen it.

I asked Emma Lowther, Director of Communications at the Internet Watch Foundation, how she planned to judge the success of the campaign. She told me that they were looking for specific outcomes:

• An increased number of reports to Hotline and in particular, are reports which IWF can take action on.
• A high number of men reporting – they have adapted the reporting form to give reporters an option to include their gender and age bracket.
• A high number of visits to the new Do The Right Thing microsite
• An increased number of visits to the IWF website

They will be measuring the  reach and demographics of their followers on the new social media channels, and are conducting two online polls of 1,000 18-35 year olds – one at the very beginning of the campaign and again at the end to measure a change in attitudes and actions by the target group.

As to whether the Twitter and Facebook communities will continue to be supported beyond the life of the online campaign, Emma said that would depend on the success of the results:

If the channels appear to be really successful, and allow us to communicate with this traditionally hard to reach group in a way which gets our messages across successfully, then we will continue using them.

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