TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS
BIG DROP IN REPORTS OF ILLEGAL CONTENT
In 2009 the Hotline processed 2,117 reports. This was 151 more than in 2008, a modest increase of 7.7%. However, this is still 21% below the peak of 2,680 reports received in 2006. To view how reporting to Hotline.ie has progressed since 2000 to the end of this reporting period, click the thumbnail graph below left.
Reports Processed by Hotline.ie
2000 to 2009
...........................
Despite that small increase in incoming reports, what is really encouraging is that those reports found to be probably illegal under Irish law numbered 284 in 2009, compared to 536 in 2008.
These 252 fewer reports represent a reduction of 47% in reported illegal content encountered by Irish users. That has to be good news!
illegal content being encountered less often
ComReg’s Quarterly Key Data Report in September showed that in 2009 broadband subscriptions rose by 9.4% over the previous year’s figures and in 2009 there were over 1.517 million active Internet subscriptions in Ireland. Consequently, the increase of 151 reports in 2009 over the 2008 figure is still slight when the increased number of Internet subscribers − about 142,598 − is taken into account. It would have been reasonable to expect a far more substantial level of reports particularly in view of the fact that each broadband connection is typically used for longer periods of time and by multiple users who access far greater volumes of data than users on a dial-up connection.
When the above subscriber data is also taken into account for those reports that were assesed as probably illegal, assuming a constant level of illegal content dispersed around the world’s servers, statistically one would expect a larger number of people to happen upon that content more often. However, the reverse appears to be true if Hotline’s figures can be taken as a representative sample.
The number of unique illegal reports forwarded has dropped from the high of 684 in 2007, to 536 in 2008 and dropped again to 275 in 2009. Unless the Irish Internet using population has suddenly become unwilling to report illegal content, which the authors believe to be extremely unlikely, the only reasonable conclusion to be drawn is that Internet users are encountering illegal content on the Internet less often than in the previous two years.
Lax website security results in clean record ending
In October 2009 for the first time in the Hotline’s ten year history a report was received where the assessment confirmed illegal child sexual abuse images were present and that the location of this content was on web server hosted in Ireland. This report was received from the Internet Watch Foundation, the INHOPE member Hotline in the U.K., who had derived it from a report they had received. (Further details of the section "Success Examples: Threats Foiled".)
This incident, in which lax security enabled criminals to gain access to a website, ended the excellent trend which Hotline.ie and Ireland had enjoyed since the establishment of the service almost ten years earlier. Up to this point, the Hotline had not received a single report verified as illegal child pornography that was found to be hosted in or distributed from the Republic of Ireland.
Our analysts proved that in all the other cases where content was assessed as illegal under Irish law the content was either hosted or distributed from outside the Irish jurisdiction.
The case illustrates the trend which has been observed over the last few years that criminals are moving to more sophisticated techniques to place their illegal content in innocent sites with which they have no connection. Another technique to defy detection now observed occurring very frequently is that sites containing illegal content are moved around different hosts in different countries at an increasing rate.
Other anomalous cases in Ireland
There was another case where Hotline.ie has recorded that illegal content was traced to Ireland in 2009. However, the source of this content was not Ireland but the USA. This anomalous situation occurred due to the presence in Ireland of a large International operation that provides "mirroring" services for high volume websites. Their customers are web based services, such as social networking, software downloading, photosharing, etc., that need to distribute load to ensure that their users throughout the world receive reasonable response times. Illegal content was placed on a client site in the USA and was immediately copied to all the mirror locations worldwide. One of these was Ireland.
Users in certain Western European countries when accessing the mirrored services are serviced from the mirror servers in Ireland. One of these users reported to the Hotline and the site was traced to Ireland. However, this content was actually maintained from the USA. Hotline.ie forwarded it via the mirroring service abuse desk who in turn liaised with US authorities and the source Web service in the USA and the material was promptly removed. It was then automatically removed from the mirror servers in Ireland.
Comparison of the apparent locations of Child Pornography
Comparison of Locations where Child Pornography Appeared in 2008 and 2009
...........................
The bar chart to the left compares the countries to which Hotline.ie traced four or more incidents of child pornography in 2009 with those found in the previous year. With a few exceptions of very low frequency (i.e. one or two cases per annum) illegal child sexual abuse content tends to be host in a confined number of developed countries.
It must be emphasised that this in no way implies that these countries tolerate such content of have a greater incidence of child sexual abuse in their country than other countries around the world. It is simply a reflection of the fact that it is these developed countries have a greater concentration of Internet infrastructure, including server farms and a proliferation of open web based services than less developed countries. In this repect the USA faces an enormous challenge especially when the speed at which criminals shift content from location to location is taken in to consideration.
It must also be realised that Hotline.ie figures will be dominated by the situation being experienced in the the English speaking Internet. The situation in countries which act as an Internet hub for other language groups could be quite different. However, criminals will often deliberately use Internet services of a different language group to hide their activities. So we must remain vigilant and not assume that this could not befall our services.
Comparison of forwarding of illegal reports by year
Cumulative Reports Forwarded per Year
...........................
Probably the most signficant finding of the 2009 report is the continued, very significant, downward trend in material reported to Hotline.ie that actually proved to be probably illegal. Now, for the second year running, there has been a very considerable drop in the number of unique illegal reports that could be forwarded by the Hotline to either Law Enforcement or other INHOPE hotlines to follow through in their jurisdictions. This continued decline is very evident from the graph of cumulative reports forwarded per year. Click thumbnail graph at the left to enlarge.
Illegal sites mostly remain closed
It is also very gratifying that worldwide there has been considerable success in keeping illegal sites closed down, at least, at the location where they were discovered. At the time of writing this report in April/May of 2010, the Hotline.ie Content Analysts undertook some research of websites reported and assessed as illegal in 2009. It was found that in every case where there was clear imagery of children being sexually abused, the site no longer existed on the Internet or it no longer contained illegal content.
There were cases of cartoons, which are considered illegal under Irish law, but not under the laws of many other jurisdictions, which remain active. There are also forums, bulletin boards and the like that still existed which contained links to illegal material. Hotline.ie forwards such sites as illegal because they may be judged as advertising illegal content and this act is illegal under Irish law.
Illegal sites mostly remain closed: cont.
However, as soon as they cease to link or advertise the material, such a site can no longer be assessed as illegal. The content at the destination of the link at the time of the original assessment, being illegal child pornography, is also reported as a derived report and is forwarded as a separate report to the jurisdiction where it is hosted (even if this is the same jurisdiction as that hosting the forum site).
When the review was carried out many of these forums, etc. were found to be fully working and some continued to show the links. However, these specifically reported links were now broken because the target illegal content no longer existed. That is, the actual illegal images had been removed.
Hotline.ie Analysts and Mangement believe that these trends of improvement as witnessed through Irish users experiences are due to the concerted worldwide efforts of Law Enforcement, INHOPE Hotlines and that more governments have modified legislation and ensured that action is being taken in their countries. Overall let us hope the trend continues making the internet a relatively safer place for our children.
