Reports of computer-generated child sexual abuse material rose 325% last year

Irish Internet Hotline says child sexual abuse material 'is being hidden' and 'children are increasingly being commodified for payment'.

The number of reports of computer-generated child sexual abuse material made to the Irish Internet Hotline rose 325% last year, as it warned the content was increasingly shifting behind paywalled or closed-access platforms.

The sheer scale of the illegal content online “now exceeds what reactive removal alone can address”, the group has warned.

In publishing its annual report, the body detailed a growing trend towards commercialisation and concealment of such content online, which is reducing public visibility and making it more difficult for those looking to identify and remove the harmful content online.

“The content itself has not changed,” Irish Internet Hotline chief executive Mick Moran said. "What has changed is how deliberately it is being hidden and how children are increasingly being commodified for payment.

These barriers reduce visibility, slow disruption efforts, and make the work of identifying and removing this material significantly more difficult.

“It also highlights the need for financial institutions to play their part and partner with us to reduce the abuse of their financial service networks for this peddling of child sexual abuse material and other forms of exploitation.” 

Hotline.ie is Ireland’s national service for reporting illegal content online, and works with other NGOs, the gardaí, tech companies and the Government, with the aim of making the internet safer for everyone, particularly children.

Last year, it said there were a total of 61,317 reports processed, a 14.7% increase on 2024. Direct reports to the public increased significantly, from 5,346 to 8,605 with 83% of all reports relating to illegal material.

This included child sexual abuse material, child grooming and intimate image abuse.

It said there were 1,544 instances of computer-generated depictions of child sexual abuse in 2025. In terms of such illegal content going behind paywalls, Hotline said its analysts could see illegal content existed behind these barriers but could not access it under current procedures.

However, it also highlighted a high removal rate of 96% for intimate image abuse reported to it, with removal times ranging from three minutes to 24 hours.

Financial scams

In terms of scams, it said reports related to financial scams had increased by 52%, with 194 fraudulent websites identified, and 95% of them removed.

On hateful content, it said there remained a gap between public perception and legal thresholds. Of the 510 reports of suspected racism or xenophobia, just four were determined to be potentially illegal.

The content report included ones described as inciting violence, anti-semitic, anti-immigrant and promoting far-right ideology such as the “great replacement” conspiracy theory.

“One report flagged an emerging concern: the use of AI-generated imagery and voice to impersonate an Irish woman while promoting xenophobic content on TikTok,” the report said. 

"While an isolated report in 2025, it signals a trend Irish Internet Hotline will need to monitor as generative AI tools continue to be more accessible.” 

It added online harms were continuing to evolve in scale and sophistication and would require effective responses and collaboration across industry, law enforcement, Government and partners abroad.