More than 100 child victims of online sexual abuse have been identified and safeguarded by specialist garda units since the beginning of 2024.
Gardaí say they are seeing victims as young as five years of age, with online threats targeting children growing in "scale and sophistication".
Figures from the Online Child Exploitation Unit within the Garda National Protective Services Bureau (GNPSB) show that 73 child victims of online sexual abuse were identified and safeguarded in Ireland in 2024. The figure to date for this year is 39.
Since July 2024, the work of the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau's specialist Victim Identification Team saw 16 child victims identified and safeguarded in Ireland, a further 24 identified and safeguarded outside of the country and another 52 possible victims identified - and information has been passed onto authorities both local and international.
This team also uploaded more than 30,000 videos and photographs defined as Child Sex Abuse Material to an Interpol database, including 900 files of previously unknown victims.
Gardaí said online threats targeting children are growing in "scale and sophistication", presenting unprecedented challenges for law enforcement.
Offenders are leveraging AI tools to produce hyper-realistic deep-fake images and videos often used to manipulate or blackmail children.
At the same, financial sexual extortion has emerged as a rapidly escalating threat, where perpetrators coerce minors into sharing explicit material and subsequently demand payment to prevent its release.
Gardaí said the "most disturbing" trend is a "rise in sadistic online enticement", where violent groups are exploiting children via mainstream messaging platforms.
In one case, gardaí found three children in Ireland being sexually exploited online by a suspect in a different jurisdiction.
In another case in August 2024, as a result of material found on a device seized from an Irish suspect, a referral was forwarded to law enforcement colleagues in Germany.
This resulted in the identification, location and safeguarding of two children in Germany and the arrest of their father for sexual abuse and exploitation.
Detective Superintendent Michael Mullen of GNCCB said warned: "Children and teenagers who have an electronic device with uncontrolled access to the online environment need to be aware of the danger of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse along with the very serious harm that both will cause.
"Parents need to realise that such behaviour is happening online on an alarming scale."
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Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne, Det Supt Mullen said the aim of the investigation was to safeguard children in Ireland and elsewhere.
"We receive every day computers, devices, other electronic-type devices, and on receipt of those, first and foremost, we're carrying out investigations to try and get evidence to try and bring people to justice," he said.
"But at the same time, as part of our investigation, we're also looking at any child sexual abuse exploitation images on that material to see if we can identify any children that we can safeguard, whether that be here in Ireland or in another jurisdiction.
"Between the Garda National Protective Services Bureau and ourselves, there's been 55 children in the last 15 months who have been safeguarded here in Ireland and there's been another 24 children who've been safeguarded in other jurisdictions."
Det Supt Mullen said that parents needed to be more aware of the dangers their children could be exposed to.
"I think, significantly, parents need to realise that such behaviour is happening online at an alarming scale," he said.
""And it's imperative that children and teenagers do not engage with strangers online, don't ever create or share intimate content."
He encouraged any victims of such abuse not to give into blackmail and to talk to a parent, relative, friend or a member of An Garda Síochána.
He urged people to behave online in the same manner they would offline.
"Don't tolerate any behaviour that would not be tolerated in the offline world in daily physical interactions, just because it occurs online.
"What I'd say to children, teenagers and parents is, before you carry out an activity online, think to yourself, would I do this offline?"
