Incoming Reports
In 2009 the Hotline processed 2,117 reports. These were made up of 1,968 external reports and 149 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.
Under the procedures agreed with Government, the Hotline is not permitted to proactively search for illegal content.
Therefore, to carry out its function, the Hotline relies totally on the public to initiate reports.
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. Reports may also be submitted by e-mail, telephone, letter and the automated "Lo-Call" answering service at 1890 610710. To see the proportion of reports submitted in 2009 through each channel, click on the box reporting methods to the right.
Further statistics and graphs analysing the reports may be viewed by clicking next below.
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 2009" (click on the thumbnail image below to view the graph).
Suspicion Cited in Reports During 2009
...........................
All derived reports in 2009 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 2009
...........................
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 can be either Global (gTLD) or Country (cTLD). For example .COM is a global top level domain and .IE is a country top level domain.
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. Also the Country Registry has no control over the content that may reside on the domain.
Top 5 TLDs Reported During 2009
...........................
Nevertheless it is interesting to see which TLDs are the most frequently reported. The graph to the left shows the top six domains reported that also contained illegal content. Click the thumbnail graph to enlarge.
