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The Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan T.D., today welcomed the publication of the Hotline.ie Annual Report for 2017.

Hotline.ie is the service for reporting illegal content on the internet in Ireland and liaises closely with An Garda Síochána in carrying out its very important work.

The statistics in this report show that there was an increase in the overall number of reports received by Hotline.ie in 2017 as compared with 2016, which was itself a record year. The Minister noted that while it was disturbing to see evidence of such crimes, he welcomed the fact that such images had been rendered inaccessible and were being dealt with by appropriate law enforcement.

The Minister said: “This ongoing contribution to the fight against the scourge of child sexual abuse imagery online is very important and much appreciated.”

The Government’s enhanced legislative provisions to better protect children in the online environment are acknowledged in the report. Hotline.ie continues to have an important role under the Government’s Action Plan for Online Safety which the Taoiseach launched in July 2018.

The Action Plan sets out specific actions under five goals and the Department of Justice and Equality leads on the oversight of Hotline.ie as well as on legislative changes to criminal law, liaison with An Garda Síochána on implementation and enforcement issues and finally on the disbursement of EU funding. The Minister is absolutely committed to ensuring his Department plays its part in tackling these horrific crimes.

The Minister acknowledged the support of the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland for Hotline.ie and thanked the team in Hotline.ie for their vital work. The Minister said: “I wish the Hotline.ie team every success in their important and valuable work and can assure them of the total support of the Government in tackling the horrible crime of child sexual abuse images online.”

ENDS


Note for Editors

The Hotline.ie Annual Report is available on Hotline.ie’s website at the following link: https://www.hotline.ie/library/annual-reports/2018/hotline-annual-report-jan-dec-2017.pdf.

Hotline.ie is the confidential service for reporting illegal content, in particular child sexual abuse content, on the internet in Ireland. It is operated and part funded by the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland.

Hotline.ie also receives funding from the EU under the EU Safer Internet Programme as co-ordinated in Ireland by the Department of Justice and Equality.

Hotline.ie was set up in 1999. It is a founder member of the international umbrella organisation of hotlines - INHOPE. Hotline.ie acts on reports received. It liaises closely with An Garda Síochána in carrying out its functions.

Hotline.ie receives reports of possibly illegal content, analyses them and acts in accordance with agreed procedures, brings probably illegal content to the attention of An Garda Síochána.

It also draws the illegal content to the notice of the relevant internet service provider (ISP) member company of the ISPAI and the ISP takes the content down. This procedure is referred to as 'Notice and Takedown'.