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'Dramatic rise' in illegal online porn visits

Staff reporter
Staff reporter - [email protected]
'Dramatic rise' in illegal online porn visits
Computer keyboard. Photo: Wikimedia

The number of reports of people accessing child pornography and other illegal content via the internet increased dramatically in Austria in 2013, according to the Stopline internet authority.

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Stopline, which was set up by Internet Service Providers Austria (ISPA) to curb illegal activity, reported a record 6,070 instances of such cases in 2013, more than double the previous year, according to the Austrian Press Agency. 

Director Barbara Schlossbauer said at a press conference in Vienna that 98 percent of cases related to child pornography and the remainder to national-socialism related content. She said that only a third of all the illegal content was actually hosted in Austria.

Eighty percent of the illegal content was removed from the Internet within three days, said ISPA General Secretary Maximilian Schubert.

Schlossbauer said the development of social media meant that minors are now uploading intimate material for their own social circles that is not necessarily sexual abuse, but can be viewed by others as child pornography, and is easily accessible. 

New technological developments are also making the production and sharing of illicit material easier, Schlossbauer added. 

Stopline is aimed at people who want to report those downloading illegal material, but who don't want to go to the police and wish to remain anonymous.

Internet users in Austria can report their suspicions in regard to illegal materials at the Stopline website.

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