Reports of child pornography on the internet have almost trebled since mid-2003, a report from the internet provider industry has found.
The study, from the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) and which was published by Minister of State for Children Brian Lenihan yesterday, also finds the severity of the material has increased.
It finds that while, between July 2001 and July 2003, there were 1,792 reports from Irish internet users of having come across child pornography on the web, this had increased to 5,102 reports between July 2003 and December 2005.
These figures reflect reports made to the ISPA's watchdog facility, at www.hotline.ie.
Paul Durrant, general manager at the hotline, said in all cases the sites were traced and found to have been based outside Ireland.
However, he said just because none was traced to an Irish-based site, there was "no reason for complacency. There is no reason to believe child pornography is not being produced here."
Of the 5,012 reports received by the hotline, 53.6 per cent related to unsolicited e-mail (spam), with websites encountered by internet users accounting for 40.8 per cent.
When a member of the public reports child pornography to the hotline, the information is assessed by trained analysts who track the origin of the site and pass the information to the relevant police force.
Mr Durant said most of the sites were found to have originated in the US, Asia and former communist states of eastern Europe. None was in the EU.
However, he stressed, that material could be created here, ie a child or children abused here, and the images posted at sites based outside Ireland.
Mr Lenihan said Government valued the work of the ISPA's hotline and pointed out the internet was also "regulated by law".
"Many of the images found by hotline are truly horrendous. Children as young as five or six, and in some cases babies and toddlers, have been photographed or videoed being raped and forced into all kinds of sexual acts," he said. "It is through tracing these images that clues can be provided to police and welfare services to rescue these unfortunate children, irrespective of the country in which they happen to live, and bring these evil people who are doing this, to justice."
