A new report by Childwatch.ie today has once again highlighted the dangers of young school girls openly posting images which are subsequently being copied for use on internet porn galleries.

The report, carried out by online child protection company Childwatch.ie, investigated the uploading of Irish teens images onto porn sites, The report titled Digital Fish Report - the betrayal of young Irish girls in online porn details the discovery of images of female Junior cycle students being used to advertise escort services.

According to the report, in 2013, galleries containing 872 images featuring Irish (primarily Dublin) teenage girls in ‘Wez/Wrights Gear’ were uploaded to an adult porn site by one of the site users:

‘‘The girls had become aware of the uploads and chatter arose through online social media from which news reports circulated highlighting the incident, but none of those reports came close to outlining the depth of the problem and the significance of the issues underlying this case.’

As part of it's research, Childwatch.ie successfully used geolocation technology in indenitying the girls in the images found and were able to track them down. The report explained,

“As part of the research we took a sampling of 22 victims to determine how many would succumb to geo-location techniques that are commonly used on the basis of GPS data attached to social media posts when location services are enabled. Of that sampling, 14 were successfully traced to their homes and other places that they frequent. It is impossible to estimate if this would represent a trend across all victims, but the degree of success with this limited group is a concern.”

The report is primarily about crime prevention but the group insists that it is also about illustrating how young people are vulnerable and there needs to be a balance between internet freedoms and governance:

“(The report) is equally about appreciating the situations that our young people have found themselves in, and the lack of support, education and assistance that they receive as these uploads continue. There has to be a balance between Internet freedoms and governance, but it should always side with the interests of a child or teenager that is being targeted by an audience that has a sexual interest in them. To ignore that threat is to play roulette with the potential for events that can destroy a person’s life, and have a lasting effect on the opportunities that may arise in the future.”


Read full report here.

For more on online child safety please see our dedicated section.

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