Irish children used to make porn

IRISH children have been used in the making of child pornography in Ireland, the country’s child sexual abuse watchdog said yesterday.

CARI’s national clinical director, Eileen Prendiville, said that children have told them of their experiences of being filmed and viewed on computers.

“They have seen video images of themselves and other children. It does happen in Ireland.”

Child pornography was happening all around the country but nothing concrete was being done to identify the children involved.

It was all the more unnerving because of the strong link between pornography and actual sexual abuse, said Ms Prendiville.

Even where cases have been reported to the gardaí, both the children and their parents were stilldistressed knowing the images were still in circulation.

What was needed, said Ms Prendiville, was a concerted effort by the gardaí to track the images to prove the children’s claims that had already been reported to them.

In particular, CARI wants the gardaí to keep regular photographs (not pornographic images) of the children on file so they could be matched with internet images.

Unfortunately, she said, the families have not been asked for such photographsand offers to provide them have not been accepted.

“The absence of such a file shows the system is sadly lacking,” said Ms Prendiville. A copy of the file could also be given to the UCC COPINE project that tracks down paedophiles.

Ms Prendiville said there was one case where the abuse only came to the fore when the child images were discovered in another country. Founded in 1989, CARI provides therapy services for children and young people who have been affected by sexual abuse, and counselling support and advice for families and groups.