An increasing number of internet platforms featuring Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) are using paywalls and restricted-access systems in an effort to avoid authorities.
Last year, CSAM continued to be the "largest and most demanding area" for Irish Internet Hotline (IIH), which provides a confidential service for the public to report suspected illegal content on the internet.
Its latest annual report states that the landscape "shifted" in 2025, as platforms moved behind paywalls and paid-access barriers.
The transition, according to the report, "fundamentally altered" the ability of IIH analysts to assess, monitor and act against CSAM on these platforms.
The national reporting service for illegal content online has a dedicated team of analysts who assess reports of CSAM, intimate image abuse and other illegal content.
Working closely with An Garda Síochána and online service providers, it can have child sexual abuse material swiftly removed from the internet and ensure efforts are made to identify and safeguard the children in the imagery.
In 2025, IIH processed 61,317 reports, marking the highest level of activity in its history.
Of those, 49,808 were reports by the public of child sexual abuse material, a 10.8% increase from 2024.
However, it should be noted this growth was due primarily to the expanded international monitoring system known as ICCAM or the INHOPE system, of which Irish Internet Hotline is a member, enabling the team to remove international content.
Last year, IIH managed to remove 99.6% of all CSAM reported to it, regardless of where the material was hosted.
IIH classifies confirmed CSAM on a five-level severity scale.
In 2025, the largest single category was Level 4, which covers penetrative sexual activity involving children and adults, accounting for 44% of all assessed content.
The prevalence of this second most severe classification at this volume reflects "the gravity of the material being encountered" in day-to-day operations, according to the report.
Of particular concern, it said, is the increase in content involving infants.
Reports involving infant victims quadrupled in a year rising from 1% in 2024 to 4% in 2025.
While it is a small proportion of overall reports according to IIH, it notes that the vulnerability of the victims and the severity of the abuse depicted makes it "one of the most disturbing trends in the 2025 data".
Reports involving computer-generated depictions of child sexual abuse, predominantly cartoon and illustrated imagery, grew 325% last year (from 363 to 1,544).
While explicitly illegal under Irish law, the "volume and variety" of the material present growing challenges for both detection and assessment according to the report.
The 49,808 CSAM reports processed by the IIA last year were filtered through two workflows.
There were 7,877 Actioned CSAM Reports – which were confirmed cases of child sexual abuse material reported to Irish Internet Hotline.
These reports are reviewed and assessed by analysts, actioned for removal, and forwarded to An Garda Síochána for further investigation.
The remaining 41,931 were Monitored Global CSAM Reports.
Monitored reports refer to internationally confirmed CSAM cases. Irish Internet Hotline is one of only four hotlines globally with the capability to monitor these reports.
These types of reports rose by 49% between 2024 and 2025 because of the growing impact of paid-access barriers.
The issue for analysts is that they can see that illegal content exists behind barriers, but it cannot access the content under current procedures.
The IIH is now exploring alternative approaches to identify hidden networks.
Global Distribution
Vietnam emerged as the primary hosting location in 2025 (28,764 instances identified), representing 59% of all CSAM actioned globally by IIH.
Panama (7,938) and the United States (4,582) were the next largest hosting locations.
In a notable development, the Netherlands fell from 11,779 instances in 2024 to 1,289 in 2025, and Germany from 4,582 to 13, following "concerted enforcement activity" in those jurisdictions.
Ireland continued to account for a negligible share of global CSAM hosting, according to the report.
"Illegal content identified on Irish infrastructure is removed quickly, reflecting strong cooperation between Irish Internet Hotline, hosting providers, and An Garda Síochána," it said.
Intimate Image Abuse
Intimate image abuse became a criminal offence in Ireland in 2021 and is known as Coco's Law.
There were 862 intimate image abuse reports received by Hotline in 2025.
459 reports involved confirmed sharing of intimate images. 99% (456 cases) involved publicly accessible content and 3 cases involved sharing through encrypted or private communication channels.
55% of those sharing images without consent were male and 44% were female with the remaining percentage transgender or gender diverse.
The majority (44%) were aged between 25 and 34. The next largest cohort (35%) was the 18-24 age bracket. 13% were under 18 years and 6% were between 35 and 44 years. The remaining 2% were older than 44 years.
In addition to cases where images were already shared, IIH received 207 reports involving threats to share intimate images without an extortion component. 184 were referred to An Garda Síochána at the reporter's request.
Financial Scamming
Last year, Irish Internet Hotline addressed financial scams which involved fraudulent websites impersonating Irish organisations, phishing targeting Irish residents, fake online shops, and unauthorised lending sites claiming Irish regulatory oversight.
The team identified "significant activity" in financial scams targeting Irish residents.
There was a 37% increase in reports of suspected financial scams compared to the previous year and a 52% increase in confirmed financial scams targeting Irish residents.
A total of 204 websites identified as attempting to scam Irish residents and the IIH had a 95% successful removal rate of reported scam websites.
Financial scams last year mainly related to websites impersonating trusted organisations like Revenue, An Post, or Irish banks known as phishing sites
30% were "clone websites" of legitimate businesses offering heavily discounted goods that consumers never received.
5% were fraudulent loan websites falsely claiming to be regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland and 23% related to other financial scam schemes.
Of the 204 confirmed scam websites, 99% were hosted outside Ireland, yet many used .ie domains and impersonated Irish institutions such as An Post, Revenue, and the Central Bank to appear legitimate.
Racism and Xenophobia
There were 510 reports of racism and xenophobia reported to IIH last year, which was a decrease from 908 reports in 2024.
Despite the decrease, Hotline CEO Mick Moran has noted in the report that the gap between what people expect to be illegal and what meets the legal threshold under Irish law remains wide.
General hate speech and xenophobic rhetoric was the most common theme, featuring in 63% of original reports.
Threats of violence or incitement were also widespread, appearing in 43% of reporter comments.
These ranged from explicit calls to harm individuals or groups to more indirect language that reporters perceived as encouraging hostility.
Antisemitic content appeared in 14% of reports, with references to the Holocaust, Nazi imagery, and "Heil Hitler" slogans recurring across platforms.
Anti-immigration sentiment targeting refugees and asylum seekers featured in 11%, while anti-Black racism appeared in 8% and Islamophobic content in 5%.
A smaller number of reports (2%) explicitly referenced far-right ideology.
