Severity of online child pornography 'increasing'

The number of confirmed reports of child pornography and the severity of the illegal content rose in 2007, according to figures released today by an online reporting service.

The Hotline.ie service, which is run by the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland (ISPAI) and allows internet users to anonymously report illegal material online, said it received 2,590 reports of suspected illegal material on the internet last year.

The number of those confirmed as child pornography rose by almost 62 per cent compared to 2006 figures.

The report also found that child pornography is increasing in severity, with analysts encountering more frequently what the service described as "extremely explicit" photos and videos of the rape and sexual abuse of children.

Unveiling the report, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern,called on those who found any suspect activities while browsing web pages, on file sharing networks, on online forums, in chat rooms or in newsgroups to report it to Hotline.ie.

"No one can turn a blind eye to this abuse," he said. "The report is clear that the child pornography material reported to the Hotline is of an increasingly severe and appalling nature."

However, no illegal child pornography was found to have been hosted in Ireland. The hotline attributed this to the ISPAI member companies and An Garda Siochána, which it said had deterred criminals and paedophiles from using internet facilities based in Ireland for the illegal content. This is the eighth consecutive year that Ireland has maintained a clean record.

There are other areas causing increasing concern for management of Hotline, including the lack of complaints about illegal content on peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing services, and the number of Irish internet service providers who have yet to join the ISPAI.

"Some of the most disturbing material the analysts saw last year was found on P2P services," said Paul Durrant, general manager of ISPAI.

"Many children use file-sharing and I appeal to the public to help rid P2P of such material by reporting suspiciously named files when they come across them."

Because the ISPs have yet to sign up to the ISPAI, Hotline said they are "neither formally committing to the ISPAI code of practice and ethics nor financially contributing to the work carried out by the Hotline".

The report raised serious concerns about this situation, believing that a cohesive effort by the industry is an important factor in fighting child pornography.

"Anything less is nothing short of irresponsible," the organisation said.

The Minister for Justice also called on the remaining companies to remedy the situation. "My message to them is clear and straightforward – join. Any responsible ISP or hosting company should contribute to the financing of the Hotline and join in the development and running of awareness programmes," he said.

"It is not good enough that some in this industry are happy to reap the benefits for themselves of self-regulation by riding on the backs of the ISPAI members who are making a concerted effort to make the internet safer for all."

Mr Ahern warned that while he was satisfied to allow the current self-regulation of the industry to continue, he would not hesitate to introduce statutory compliance should the need arise.