Ireland's national centre for combatting illegal content online removed 25% more child sexual abuse material than in the previous 21 years combined.
Hotline.ie classified 14,772 publicly sourced reports as child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
1 in 4 child sexual abuse material reports also contained images or videos that appeared to have been generated by children themselves, with indicators of grooming or coercion by adults.
Hotline's annual report cites the example of a child receiving compliments, instructions or even threats (over video chat, other times from someone present in the room whilst not visible on camera).
66% of sexual abuse images and videos were of children aged 4 to 12 years. 86% of children in the imagery were girls. 3% were children estimated to be aged three years and under.
Levels of severity ranged from explicit sexual activity of a child to penetrative sexual assault of a child by an adult, to sadistic sexual torture and bestiality involving a child.
9% of CSAM reports also contained computer generated or drawn content depicting child sexual abuse, which is illegal under Irish law.
This type of "virtual" material has steadily increased over the last five years according to Hotline.ie, with 2021 being an all-time high.
It has described this kind of material as "a concerning trend" as it seeks to normalise the consumption of child sexual abuse imagery, "in an attempt to desensitize from the physical and psychological harm suffered by real children who suffer sexual abuse and exploitation".
Image hosting - a service that allows users to upload images with unique URLs to be shared or embedded in other websites - was the most common means of CSAM distribution last year.
In 2021, image hosting was used 81% of the time compared to 11% in 2020 when cyberlockers (services that
specifically host or store user files) were the most popular means of distribution.
Hotline.ie says the use of different platforms linked in this manner, is one method that perpetrators tend to use in an attempt to prolong the lifespan of material online.
The report notes that perpetrators are becoming more tech savvy and agile - when one path to distribution is blocked, they find new methods and new platforms to misuse or even platform hopping tactics.
In 2021, Hotline.ie traced CSAM as being hosted in 42 countries, the widest distribution across countries since Hotline.ie began in 1999.
The top three hosting countries amounted to 65% of the CSAM, whilst the top ten accounted for 91%.
The increase in reports regarding specific image hosts led to a surge in reports traced to Moldova from less than 1% in 2020 to 19% of the total in 2021.
There was also a significant increase in content traced to Hong Kong, with 5% in 2021 compared to 1% the year previous.
India similarly accounted for 5% while never having had an incident of CSAM reported to Hotline.ie before.
Seven reports were traced to Ireland in 2021, and six of these were cases related to child sexual exploitation that had been reported initially as Intimate Image Abuse.
Each CSAM instance traced to Ireland was removed within twenty-four hours which means Ireland is "a hostile hosting environment for CSAM".
The Hotline.ie intimate image service - where a person can report an intimate image or video having been shared without consent - launched in September 2021 in partnership with the Department of Justice.
Over 12 months, Hotline.ie received 773 reports under IIA suspicion.
As a point of reference, it says the UK helpline for IIA recorded approximately 500 reports in its first year of operation.
525 of reports were actionable - which means they contained the necessary information required to locate the imagery online - and subsequently removal at source could be effected.
Preliminary analysis of the reports received by Hotline.ie to date indicate that men seem to be more at risk of falling victim to sextortion ('webcam blackmail' or the threat to expose sexual images).
The victims have reportedly been approached over social media, through dating apps or on video-chat services.
1 in 7 reporters indicated they wished to have the matter referred to An Garda Síochána for law enforcement investigations, along with having the content removed by Hotline.ie.
