Watchdog finds huge rise in sexual extortion and online child abuse material

According to Hotline.ie, nine out of ten of victims  who contacted it were male, mainly young men, though almost a fifth were boys. File picture: Alamy

Confirmed reports of child sexual abuse material doubled to more than 29,000 incidents in 2023, according to an online watchdog.

Hotline.ie said the number of reports reflects “only a small slice” of the amount in circulation and said that a single report could contain “hundreds to tens of thousands of images or videos”.

In its annual report, the watchdog said the 29,044 confirmed child sexual abuse material reports it received last year represented a 10-fold rise on figures in 2020.

The report also reveals:

• A 280% jump in reports involving self-generated child sexual abuse material, that is, imagery shared online either voluntarily or through coercion, grooming, or blackmail;
• 210% rise in sexual extortion cases, nine out of 10 involving young men and boys;
• 760 confirmed reports of intimate abuse imagery, up 10% from 689 in 2022.

“In 2023, there was a 110% increase in the amount of child sexual abuse material identified by Hotline.ie analysts,” the report said.

“Of the 38,435 reports of suspected child sexual abuse material in 2023, 29,044 of them were determined to lead to child sexual abuse material, compared to 13,799 in 2022.”

It said the numbers reported are “only a small slice of the amount of child sexual abuse material that is in circulation”. Analysts also identified eight cases of child grooming, compared to nine the year before.

Hotline.ie also receives reports in other areas, including financial scams and racism/xenophobia.

It received 441 reports of financial scams, compared to 321 in 2022 (+37%) and 128 reports of racism, compared to 108 in 2022 (+19%).

The report said 99.6% of the child sexual abuse material reported to Hotline.ie was removed.

Sexual extortion

Hotline.ie said 274 people contacted it in 2023, saying they were victims of sexual extortion scams — compared to 88 cases in 2022.

Nine out of ten of the victims were male, mainly young men, though almost a fifth were boys.

This is in sharp contrast to intimate image abuse (IIA) in general, where the bulk of victims tend to be female.

IIA is where sexually explicit images are shared online — typically by an ex-partner — without the consent of the other person.

This was made an offence under ‘Coco’s Law’ — the Harassment, Harmful Communications, and Related Offences Act 2020.

The 2023 annual report of Hotline.ie documents an increase in IIA, including a “sharp rise” in sexual extortion, along with a doubling in reports of child sexual abuse imagery.

In relation to intimate imagery abuse, the report said:

• 915 reports were sent to Hotline.ie as suspected cases;
• 760 were analysed and classified as IIA in accordance with the 2020 act — compared with 689 cases in 2022 (+10%);
• 470 reports involved the actual sharing of imagery, 92% in public online spaces;
• 288 reports comprised 274 sexual extortion cases and 13 cases of threats to share IIA.

The report said: “Of all reports that were publicly shared, 95% were successfully taken down. None of the context was found hosted on Irish services.” 

It said this “can present a challenge” when seeking the removal of content as many of the countries hosting the sites do not have IIA laws.

It said unfortunately a proportion of material may not be removed until there are laws in those countries.

“Despite this, Hotline.ie continues to seek the removal of the remaining 5%,” it said.

The report highlights a particular problem regarding sextortion — a trend also documented by the EU police agency, Europol, and the British Internet Watch Foundation.

“The most significant increase from 2022 was the sharp rise in sexual extortion scams,” the report said.

Of the 274 people, nine out of ten were males — 18% (49) under the age of 18 and 51% (140) in the 18-24 age category.

Almost all (99%) of the scams were carried out through social media.

A key component of these scams is gaining access to a ‘friends’ or ‘followers’ list that the scammer can threaten to share the intimate images to.

It said that, in part due to the high number of sexual extortion scams, 63% of the total IIA reports were from males “in stark contrast” to 2022 where 85% of the reporters were female.

It said that apart from sextortion cases, primarily affecting males, there has been a “significant increase” in males reporting IIA.

Throughout 2023, 198 IIA abuse reports were referred to the Garda National Protective Services Bureau, which the report said was “nearly four times” the amount in 2022.

It said that 63% of people sought to have their reports sent to the gardaí, a significant rise from 11% in 2022.

Hotline.ie said that it received over 40,000 reports from people in 2023, 30% higher than 2022 and a four-fold increase on 2020 (10,583).

The vast bulk of reports (38,435 in 2023) related to suspected child sexual abuse imagery.