International Network
Global war on child abuse images
As the Internet today is a vast, global entity national action alone would be largely ineffective against the purveyors of child pornography. Fortunately, the voice of Hotline.ie can be heard on a wider stage through its membership of INHOPE (The International Association of Internet Hotlines), and its co-operation with international law enforcement agencies through An Garda Síochána.
INHOPE which celebrates its tenth anniversary during 2009, co-ordinates the work of the various hotlines in responding to illegal content on the Internet. The exchange of reports is facilitated by a good working relationship between hotlines who share a mutual trust built on INHOPE's rigorous hotline approval process.
The international hotlines are recognised by their governments and operate to best practices developed by the INHOPE network. Members act against the hosting and distribution of child abuse images on the Internet irrespective of the originating jurisdiction. Through INHOPE, details of illegal content discovered by a hotline in one country can be swiftly forwarded for action to another member country’s hotline.
Under this mutual arrangement whereby Hotline.ie is able to send reports directly
Global War contd.
to INHOPE members, it can also receive reports directly from them shouldthey find illegal content hosted in Ireland. However, yet again in 2008, Hotline.ie did not receive any confirmed reports of illegal child pornographic content (CP) from the other INHOPE hotlines. This is testament to Ireland's excellent record of zero CP being hosted by ISPs in this country.
In 2008, the INHOPE network grew to 32 member hotlines operating in 29 countries with the arrival of Luxembourg, and a new organisation which took over hotline operations in Cyprus. These hotlines are important and are welcome additions to the global fight against child sex abuse images, and racist and xenophobic content on the Internet. More information is available on the INHOPE website.
INHOPE holds two General Assembly meetings per year. In 2008, the first, held in May, was hosted by Ireland and took place in Malahide. This was the Annual General Meeting and a Board comprising of representatives from USA, South Korea, Finland, Germany and Lithuania was elected. Then in October, it was Portugal's turn and the meeting, held in Lisbon, focussed on technical and practical issues faced by hotlines both now and into the future. Presentations included: Future Technologies and their Impact on People's Behaviour; Internet Sex Offenders: The people Behind the Offences; Europol's fight Against Online Sexual Exploitation.
The Safer Internet Programme of the European Commission has been instrumental in supporting the development of the hotline network and has funded INHOPE since 2000.
