Two-thirds of adults believe the problem of online child sexual abuse in Ireland is widespread, according to the findings of a new report by the European Commission.
Although the results showed that an overwhelming majority of Irish people, like their counterparts across Europe, felt children are increasingly at risk online, just 1 in 5 Irish adults said parents know what their children are doing online.
The report also revealed that 11 per cent of Irish people know of a child who has been the victim of online sexual abuse in the form of being groomed or having images or videos of their abuse being shared.
It was the joint 6th highest rate among EU countries where the average figure was 8 per cent.
In addition, 10 per cent of Irish respondents said they had personally come across or been exposed to child sexual abuse material online.
The results of the major EU-wide survey showed 67 per cent of Irish respondents claimed online child sexual abuse was widespread including 19 per cent who stated the issue was very widespread.
However, the figure was below the EU average of 73 per cent.
The Eurobarometer poll on the protection of children against online sexual abuse involved a survey of over 26,000 individuals across all 27 EU member states, including over 1,000 in the Republic.
Only 25 per cent of Irish adults said they agreed that children can safely use the internet without being exposed to harmful content.
The same percentage said they felt children could safely use the Internet without being approached by adults seeking to harm them.
Parental controls
On the role of parents, 90 per cent of Irish adults acknowledged there is increasing pressure on parents to ensure their children stay safe online.
However, just 20 per cent agreed that parents, in general, are aware of what their children are doing online.
In addition, 78 per cent said tools like parental controls were not sufficient to keep children safe when using the internet.
There was also overwhelming support among Irish citizens for the exchange of child sexual abuse material to be detected and investigated with the aim of rescuing victims, brining perpetrators to justice and taking material down to prevent the re-traumatisation of victims.
In May 2022, the European Commission proposed measures to provide for stronger child protection measures and targeted detection where necessary.
However, an interim EU regulation will expire if the proposed legislation is not in place by August 2024 which will make it illegal even to voluntarily detect such criminal content in online messages.
The report noted that online service providers sent over 1.5 million reports last year of child sexual abuse online which stemmed from EU member states.
Approximately 70 per cent of reports came from online messages, e-mails and chat with the remainder from other sources such as social media and gaming platforms.
The survey showed the vast majority of both Irish and EU citizens supported such action to detect online sexual abuse in cases of a significant risk to children.
A narrow majority of Irish people also said social media platforms and other online service providers should be obliged by law, under certain circumstances to detect and report sexual abuse of children.
By Seán McCárthaigh
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