The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) received 747 reports of content on the internet that is illegal and harmful to minors during the third quarter of this year via the hotline “Švarus internetas” (“Clean Internet”). The number of reports increased by 78% compared to the same period last year.
“Of all the reports received, the number of reports of images of child sexual abuse has almost doubled compared to the same quarter last year. We received around 200 of them”, says Irma Kazlienė, Head of CRA’s Digital Services Regulatory Group.
CRA’s experts investigated every single report received and 69%, or 512 reports, were confirmed. Of these, 273 were duplicate reports.
Most of the new reports (186) of images of child sexual abuse have been forwarded to Internet hotlines in other countries, members of INHOPE, the international association of the Internet hotlines.
“The rest of the notifications were forwarded to internet service providers, website owners and social network operators in various countries with a Notice and Take Down (NTD) flagging the prohibited content on their websites or networks, with instructions to take it down as soon as possible. We also cooperate with the Police Department and the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics, to whom we promptly forward reports,” explains I. Kazlienė.
In this quarter, 13 reports were forwarded to the Police Department for further investigation due to suspicions of prohibited content on Lithuanian service stations, while 6 reports were forwarded to the Office of the Inspector of Journalist Ethics (OJEO) for further investigation due to suspicions of content that may have a negative impact on minors.
“Our experts also provided 117 consultations between July and September on online safety, content blocking, content filtering tools and the use of social networks. Most of the inquiries, as many as 80%, were about hijacked social networking accounts,” reveals the CRA expert on digital services issues.
Updated on 2024-03-15