THE NUMBER of reports from Ireland of suspected illegal activity on the internet, including child pornography, has declined for the second year running, dropping by nearly a quarter last year.
The sharp decline in reporting has been revealed in the annual report of hotline.ie, the Irish agency that receives and investigates reports of illegal activity from internet users here.
Launching the report yesterday, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said he was encouraged that Irish internet users were coming across less illegal material on the web.
Last year’s decline followed a 3 per cent fall in 2007.
Mr Ahern said last year’s sharp fall in suspect internet activity here, most of which relates to child pornography, has been replicated in other countries.
“Hopefully what we are experiencing is the result of worldwide efforts by hotlines, police and other relevant authorities to eliminate child pornography networks,” Mr Ahern said.
Hotline.ie is a website run by the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland (Ispai) through which internet users can report suspect internet content.
Ispai general manager Paul Durrant said he believed the fall in illegal activity last year was attributable to some large Russian criminal networks having been targeted and shut down.
He said the trends were encouraging because they followed an average 48 per cent year on year increase in cases reported from 2003 to 2007. “However, there is no room for complacency as this still represents a level of reported illegal content that is higher than that experienced in 2006.”
“This is an international fight on the international network that is the internet, and Ireland must play its part. It is extremely important that the public do not ignore content encountered that they suspect to be illegal but report it.”
Some 1,966 reports of illegal activity were received by hotline.ie from internet users in Ireland in 2008, down 24 per cent on 2007.
Some 497 of last year’s reports were determined to be illegal under Irish law. Of these, 443 related to child pornography, all of which were images that originated outside Ireland. This was a 38 per cent decrease from 2007.
Six of last year’s cases related to child trafficking and 48 reports related to financial scams.
Mr Ahern said a complaint from an Irish internet user had resulted in the disablement of a network of Australian sites that provided access to child pornography.
When hotline.ie receives a complaint it tries to locate the material and assess if it is criminal. If so, the association contacts any international agency which has the power to take the material off the internet as quickly as possible.
When material is located and taken down criminal investigations in other jurisdictions are often begun.
