Relatively little child pornography is being distributed from Ireland, despite the Garda questioning of a man in Co Waterford for running such an Internet site, according to a computer industry expert.
Mr Cormac Callanan, chairman of the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland, says, however, there have been complaints about foreign-based sites carrying child pornography.
He oversees an industry hot line launched by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, last November to receive complaints.
Gardai in Co Waterford recently questioned a man who they believe set up a trading operation to exchange, with other paedophiles, pictures of children being abused. The man is understood not to be a native of Waterford.
The hotline has received fewer than five complaints from the public about websites, none of them in Ireland, Mr Callanan says. The hotline (www. hotline.ie) represents an attempt by the industry to regulate itself and its findings are to be monitored by a committee appointed by the Minister.
The committee, chaired by the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Eamon Barnes, will meet for the first time in the next two weeks, Mr Callanan says.
Mr Mark Henry, of Amarach Consulting, argues that "the hotline needs to be better publicised. There needs to be a link from the home page of every Internet Service Provider. It isn't at all exposed."
Mr Henry was a member of the Government's Working Group on the Illegal and Harmful Use of the Internet. The group concluded that a system of self-regulation by Internet service providers was the most appropriate way to tackle the problem.
Such a system, it said, should include three elements: a national public hotline to report illegal use of the Internet, an advisory board bringing together the partners needed to ensure successful self-regulation and public education or "awareness" measures.
Mr Callanan says many people do not understand the hotline is there or what it does. He expects the number of complaints, which come mainly by e-mail, to increase when all ISPs - the companies home users sign up with to access the Internet - put a link to the hotline on their home pages. The hotline is financed by the ISPs who are committed to blocking access to sites carrying child pornography.
Mr Callanan says the complaints which are received about foreign-based sites offering child pornography are forwarded to the appropriate authorities abroad.
A conference in Vienna last autumn brought together experts and representatives from governments, the Internet industry, international organisations, hot lines and non-governmental organisations. It had this to say in its conclusions:
"We stress the importance of hotlines or tiplines, be they established by governments, the industry or by NGOs [non-governmental organisations]. They play an important role in allowing users to have an easy point of contact with a trusted third party to whom they can report illegal content, knowing that action will be taken as a result. The work of hotlines has led to much useful intelligence, and led to the removal of many images from the Internet." Mr Callanan says people exchange child pornography by various means on the Internet. These range from downloading them from websites to passing them between paedophiles by email or instant messaging. The most difficult operations to uncover are those set up by rings of paedophiles using passwords and other ways of escaping notice. However, a number of these operations has been uncovered by police forces internationally.
One of the weaknesses of paedophile operations on the Internet is the continuous need for new material. This exposes them to risk and can lead to their detection, he says. The fight against child pornography is a permanent one, he says. Internet child abuse "is not something that's going to go away - crime doesn't stop". E-mail: pomorain@irish-times.ie Weblink, industry hotline: www.hotline.ie