Authorities ‘struggle to shut illicit websites’

INTERNATIONAL authorities are unable to act against almost half of all illegal internet sites identified by the Irish public, an industry watchdog warns.

Hotline, established by the Internet Service Providers' Association of Ireland, allows people to report suspected illegal material. It has validated around 180 such complaints since July 2001. Around 120 of such complaints related to child pornography.

Hotline's annual report claims that only around 10% of sites reported are actually deemed to contain illegal material upon investigation.

However, Hotline general manager, Paul Durrant said no illegal material had been found to be hosted or distributed from any server based in Ireland since the body was set up in 1999.

"The overwhelming majority of suspect material encountered by the Irish public on the internet originates outside the State," said Mr Durrant.

However, the organisation said that action to remove the material was only possible in around 40% of cases for a variety of reasons.

In some cases, the content would not be deemed illegal in the site's host country.

Overall, Hotline received 1,792 reports between July 2001 and June 2003 an increase of 123% on the previous two-year period.

Mr Durrant said the biggest problem with child pornography was the increasingly sophisticated techniques used by criminals to avoid detection.

Mr Durrant said he believed use of fee-paying sites, such as those accessed by Irish paedophiles arrested as part of Operation Amethyst, had declined as international police forces were able to follow the money trail. There was evidence to suggest that paedophiles now preferred to swap images of child pornography for free among themselves.

Mr Durrant also expressed disappointment that some countries did not consider material which would be illegal in Ireland to be unlawful.

Meanwhile, thousands of computers around the world are being threatened by the latest international computer virus to emerge.

Unlike some of its predecessors, the new Sasser virus spreads via the internet rather than e-mail.