IFFOR Policy Council Meets for 1st Time

WASHINGTON — IFFOR Policy Council's first meeting has resulted in a resolve to focus on piracy, filtering and child porn images.

International Foundation for Online Responsibility, or IFFOR, was created to tackle issues that impact owners of .XXX domains, as well as all Internet users. It is funded through a $10 per .XXX domain contribution by ICM Registry to IFFOR.

The two-day meeting, held last month in Washington, resulted in the formation of two working groups for piracy and filtering, and a number of measures to combat child abuse images online.

IFFOR’s nine-person Policy Council consists of four stakeholder groups: Child Advocacy, represented by Sharon Girling; Free Expression, represented by Nadine Strossen; Privacy and Security, Fred Cate; Sponsored Community, Jerry Barnett, Chad Belville, Trieu Hoang, Andy Kayton and Florian Sitta; and an ICM representative, Bob Corn-Revere.

Each stakeholder group addressed the Policy Council on their area of concern and expertise, and then led discussion aimed at agreeing to the best steps going forward to tackling those concerns.  

While the Privacy and Security group has vowed to reach common goals and objectives, the Filtering working group vows to review the state of global filtering laws, regulations and plans with a view to educating legislators and others about the advantages and effectiveness of user-defined filtering as opposed to mandated filtering or blocking at the ISP or router-level.

As for child porn, the Child Advocacy panel's plan to work with existing third parties to recommend simple reporting, promote tools used to combat the problem and educate policy makers and other groups to ensure a consistent and effective approach.

“This is precisely what IFFOR was set up to do: review problems and find real-world solutions," said Clyde Beattie, chairman of the IFFOR board. "I’m delighted that the Policy Council was able to agree upon these important issues at its first meeting.

 “IFFOR can stand up for issues that are important to global Internet users and .XXX registrants that fit with our core goals. Child Advocacy, Piracy and Filtering fit that role neatly and I look forward to seeing the Policy Council make progress on all of them.”