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Public Report hundreds of thousands of Child Abuse Images to Irish watchdog

public report hundreds of thousands of child abuse images to irish watchdog
Irish Examiner

A quarter of the reports made to an Irish internet watchdog resulted in it identifying hundreds of thousands of child sexual abuse images and videos. Hotline.ie, the primary national channel where members of the public can anonymously report suspected illegal content online, witnessed child sexual abuse material being spread across all available digital mediums in 2020.

Among its findings are:

  • a 142% increase in child sexual abuse material which appeared to be self-generated images or videos;
  • 1 in 2 child sexual abuse sources included video content, a 55% marked increase in child sexual abuse video content over 2019 figures;
  • 78% of all child sexual abuse identified by Hotline.ie in 2020 showed pre-pubescent children estimated age 4 to 12 years, whilst 7% showed children estimated age 3 and younger, and 15% pubescent children aged 13 to 16 years;
  • 42% of child sexual abuse reports were found to be indicative of a commercial nature 
  • in 2020, Hotline.ie traced child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to 31 countries worldwide, with 56% of the content hosted in Europe.

According to its 2020 annual report, there were 10,583 public reports made to Hotline.ie, the third consecutive year since its inception two decades ago when the organisation received more than 10,000 reports.

When the not-for-profit identifies child abuse imagery, it is swiftly removed at source, and the children in the imagery may be identified and safeguarded. 

Ana Niculescu, chief executive of Hotline.ie said 2020 was a year “unlike any other”. “While the current pandemic has given rise to a unique set of circumstances, its ripple effect is yet to be fully understood, and it is most likely that we will be dealing with it for a great period of time,” she said.

“No matter what the next year brings we are determined to continue to work collaboratively with national and international partners to combat the availability and proliferation of child sexual abuse online, break the cycle of child sexual exploitation, prevent repeat-victimisation of children and ensure Ireland remains one of the most hostile hosting environments in the world for this nefarious purpose.”

Authored by Irish Examiner Staff via Irish Examiner August 24th 2021

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