Concerns that indecent images of children shared online are often taken by children themselves have been raised after a UK watchdog found that 30% of these types of images were user-generated.

An Irish hotline established to tackle online images of child sexual abuse has processed over 5,000 confirmed reports of illegal material in its 18-year history, an Oireachtas committee has heard.

A University College Cork (UCC) researcher has helped develop a new technology that identifies child sex-abusers online.

Child sexual abuse images of infants up to three years of age were reported in Ireland last year.

Almost 330 cases of online child abuse were confirmed last year by the expert monitoring group Hotline.ie.

A pornographic website featuring dozens of Irish girls whose pictures were posted without their consent has been reported 24 times in less than a year to a hotline investigation service.

There has been an alarming rise in the volume of child sexual abuse content online, with reports of illegal material by members of the public at an all-time high.

More than 300 cases of online child abuse were confirmed last year by a website used to report illegal content on the internet.

Tip-offs from Irish-based internet users regarding online child sex abuse are now as likely to feature reports of young boys being abused as young girls, according to an expert monitoring group.

Meeting dangerous people online, rather than watching pornography, is the greatest fear parents have when their children surf the web.

More than half of parents have not put any protections in place to protect their children from accessing harmful or inappropriate material online.

Teenagers have been warned over unwittingly creating pornography through the use of webcams which could be recording without their knowledge.

Child pornography peddlers are exploiting internet technologies to host their imagery on Irish servers, with record numbers of such cases last year.

Holidaymakers have been warned to be wary of booking holidays online this summer due to a spike in complaints about fake hotel booking confirmation emails.

Just a fraction of parents concerned about their children accidently accessing illegal or upsetting content online have installed adequate software to block harmful material.

Parents in Ireland are failing to take basic steps to protect their children online, according to research from internet watchdog, Hotline.ie.

DISTRIBUTORS of child pornography are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to conceal their online activities, says internet watchdog Hotline.ie.

THE first case of child pornography being hosted on an Irish website came to light last year after eastern European criminals hijacked the site.

TECHNOLOGICALLY savvy children across Ireland can and almost certainly are using their mobile phones to “sext” sexually explicit images of themselves to others without the images being traceable.

REPORTS from the public regarding child porn and other illegal websites fell by almost a quarter last year, with internet watchdogs claiming the war was being won against criminal online content.

IRELAND will link into an EU-wide network designed to tackle child pornography on the internet and other cyber crime.

A tip-off from a member of the Irish public has led to the shutting down of a network of child pornography websites.

AN IRISH internet watchdog received more than 2,500 reports of suspected child porn last year, it was revealed yesterday.