Ireland's Internet providers have been told by the Minister of State for Children that they must do more to combat child pornography.
Ms Mary Hanafin was commenting on the failure by Internet providers to promote their own self-regulation initiative on child pornography on the home pages of their Web-sites. The issue was raised at last week's first meeting of the Internet Advisory Board, chaired by the former Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Eamonn Barnes.
Last November, the Internet Service Providers' Association of Ireland launched a "hotline" at www.hotline.ie to which the public could report sites containing child pornography. The hotline is seen as self-regulation by the industry and has the approval of the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, who launched it.
Earlier this week, however, The Irish Times was unable to find any reference to the hotline on the front pages of the main Irish Internet service providers (ISPs) which link consumers to the World Wide Web.
Mr Cormac Callanan, who runs the hotline, said: "The ISPs who are members of the association have agreed to put links from their Web-sites to the www.hotline site. Several of the ISPs have indicated to me that they are in the process of redesigning their home page and intend that it will be there when the redesign is complete."
But Ms Hanafin said the hotline "should be actively promoted immediately by the ISPs". The industry, she said, "needs to recognise that there is a negative and dangerous side to the Internet". Mr Callanan said that while ISPs are committed to publishing the links, they may not appear on the front page in all cases. He said the Internet Advisory Board had made it clear that it wanted the hotline to be "visible and available".
"I would very strongly endorse that," he said.
"The one concern I have is the refusal of the Government to offer any ongoing funding for the operation of the hotline and I feel it is not reasonable to expect the hotline to be completely funded from the Internet service providers since few . . . are making profits," he said. "The scale of operation of the www.hotline and the range of services which can be provided are necessarily directly related to the availability of funds."
But, said Ms Hanafin: "The ISPs benefit most from public use of the Internet and, therefore, have a particular responsibility to react against child pornography."
The ISPs whose Websites were checked by The Irish Times were: Indigo, Ireland On-Line, EircomNet, EsatClear, Club Internet and Oceanfree.
Mr Callanan says the hotline is getting only a trickle of calls. He attributed this to two factors: a low level of activity in the area of child pornography in Ireland and insufficient promotion of the hotline. But he is confident that it has a future. "As director of the www.hotline, I have had many meetings with the Gardai, ISPs, the Data Protection Commissioner, and educational initiatives to promote the objectives of the www.hotline," he said. "Everyone has been encouraging and supportive."
The functions of the Internet Advisory Board are to monitor progress on self-regulation, including the hotline, and to encourage the adoption of codes of practice. Its members include representatives of the industry, the Garda, the Film Censor's Office, the child studies unit of NUI Cork, and Barnardos.
Email: pomorain@irish-times.ie
Web-link: www.hotline.ie (Internet industry hotline for reporting child pornography).