This Annual Report details the activities of Hotline.ie during the previous year. Operations started in November 1999. Almost ten years on, in excess of 16,900 reports received and over 2,750 assessed as illegal, had seen not one traced to Ireland. This enviable record faltered last October when lax security on a legitimate website in Ireland allowed criminals to place within it a hidden repository used in the sale of child pornograhy.
Click here for tips about how to navigate this report.
We hope you find this interactive Annual Report format both informative and easy to use.
ISPAI members take illegal use of the Internet services we provide very seriously, especially in order to protect children. Child sexual abuse is a horrendous crime and Hotline.ie was founded by ISPAI to stop child abuse images circulating through our networks. Hotline.ie takes decisive action on reports of such content and cooperates with similar initiatives worldwide to assist law enforcement investigation and have such material removed rapidly from the Internet.
Despite the first Irish-hosted child pornography reported through Hotline.ie, a highlight of 2009 is the marked reduction in reported material proving to be illegal. Details in the section: 2009 Analysis.
You, the reader, are central to making the Internet a safer place for everyone, particularly children. Hotline.ie is a vital tool which allows you to anonymously report content that you may encounter whilst using the Internet and which you believe could be illegal.
Your reports alert authorities to the existance of
child pornography or racist content
which might otherwise go undetected
and instigates action to have it
removed from the Internet.
The section:
Operational Background,
describes how the Hotline system
works. It shows how public
vigilance is crucial to law
enforcement and ISPs in their
joint effort to stem illegal
activity on the Internet.
