Incoming Reports
In 2008 the Hotline processed 1,966 reports. These were made up of 1,688 external reports and 278 derived reports. For an explanation of the circumstances under which the Hotline can derive reports, click the information panel on the right “Two Report Types”. In most cases the external reports were made because the reporter suspected they had encountered or were directed to what they believed may be child pornography. Though, as can be seen below, other reasons are also given.
Hotline.ie prefers to receive reports from the public through the web forms provided on the Hotline.ie website. These are accessed by clicking the large button “Make a report” which can be found prominently positioned on the home page. In 2008 the website was redesigned and made more user-friendly. Prompts for relevant technical details and help boxes were added to the reporting forms. The quality of reports has increased as a result.
Reports received through the www.hotline.ie website tend to be of superior quality as all the required information to allow processing to completion is provided. Because of the structured nature of the web forms it also allows for semi-automated transfer of report details into the Hotline database making processing of the reports both far quicker and easier for the Hotline Analysts. Reports are also received by e-mail, telephone, letter and automated “Lo-Call” answering service. Click on the panel “Reporting Methods” on the right to see distribution of reports submitted by the various means in 2008.
Suspicion cited by the public
A breakdown of the suspicion cited in these reports where provided by the reporter is shown in the graph "Suspicion Cited in Reports During 2008" (click on the thumbnail image below to view the graph).
Suspicion Cited in Reports During 2008
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All derived reports in 2008 were of child pornography. They are included in the “suspicion” numbers as effectively, when deriving a report, the Analyst is introducing a new report for processing.
To keep reporting simple, the website only allows the reporter to select one of the following suspicion categories: Child Pornography, Child Grooming Activities, Racism, Financial Scam or Other. As reports are also received by other means, such as e-mail, the Analyst categorises the report according to the suspicion or complaint made by the reporter. If it is not possible to determine the category it is reluctantly added to Other.
Internet services targeted in reports
Internet Services Reported During 2008
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The Internet is a communications infrastructure connecting millions of computers and users around the world. However, there are many different services that run on the Internet. The public are most familiar with e-mail and the World Wide Web which are just two of these services. The graph on the left shows all the services as a proportion of all reports received.
Top level domains targeted by reports
A domain name helps provide easily readable names for Internet locations. At the top level these come in two forms, Global and Country. Dot com (.COM) is a global top level domain (gTLD) and .IE is a country top level domain (cTLD).
While it is fairly obvious that a gTLD has no geographic “home”, it is important to understand that a cTLD, though controlled by the Registry of its country, does NOT necessarily mean that the data to which it relates is hosted in that country
Nevertheless it is interesting to see which TLDs are the most frequently reported. The graph below shows the top 5 domains reported.
