The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) has called for a nationwide inquiry following revelations in a TV programme last night on child pornography on the Internet.
The group said the implications arising from RTÉ's
Prime Time
programme are immense and called for a nationwide child abuse investigation to be conducted around the material arising from the programme and the people involved in using such material.
The ISPCC said the programme illustrated the link between trading pornography and generating pornographic, abusive images.
The most disturbing aspect of the programme, it said, was the nature of the web activity exposed, which illustrates how those wishing to download child abuse images must provide images of their own before they receive child pornography from others.
The group also said sentences for possession of child pornography have been too lenient in the past and called for legislation to be strengthened to reflect more accurately the gravity of the offence.
Mr Paul Gilligan, chief executive of the ISPCC, said the abuse revealed in last night's documentary was "extremely sinister" because it was "pro-actively encouraging" the generation of this material. It was not a huge leap, he said, to see that it probably had involved the abuse of children here.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Gilligan said he did not believe it was too dramatic to call for a nationwide investigation around the pornographic material which has emerged. It indicated there had to be children suffering and that nothing was being done for them, he said.
Mr Gilligan said the use of specialist Garda units with a presence on the internet was a starting point for such an investigation. He said resources and technology were required "to find out who these people are".
The CARI Foundation, an organisation which provides therapeutic services for children who have suffered sexual abuse, called for "urgent legislative steps" to tackle the issue of child pornography being traded on the Internet.
It called for tougher sentencing and treatment for those behind the exchange of images of child sexual abuse and long-term therapeutic support for those children abused. It also called for more resources for organisations dealing with children who were "inundated" with cases of children suffering "appalling" abuse.
Labour's spokeswoman on children, Senator Kathleen O'Meara, called for more resources to be given to the specialist Garda unit that is in place to tackle child pornography on the internet and prosecute people behind it.
"The Garda is under pressure in terms of resources and one way to tackle this problem would be to provide more resources to the specialised Garda unit particularly given the scale of the problem.
"This unit uses the very tools employed by child pornographers, the Internet and chat rooms. The Government needs to tackle this heinous crime with the allocation of additional personnel and resources to the Gardai."
The CARI helpline is available to all those affected by child sexual abuse. The freephone number, 1890-924567, can be contacted from 9.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., Monday to Friday.