Reports of online child pornography and phishing greatly increased in Hungary

A significant number of child pornographic content was reported in 2020 through the Hungarian National Media and Infocommunications Authority’s (NMHH) informational and protection service, the Internet Hotline, but the number of phishing attempts and personal data shared without consent has also increased, – MTI reported.

According to a statement of the NMHH’s communications directorate published on Tuesday, the hotline received more than twice as many reports – a total of 1,765 – than last year, and about 40% of them were reported for child pornographic content.

The ratio of reports of child pornographic content rose from 33% in 2019, to 40% last year.

According to 24, the most worrying development is the dramatic increase in the number and proportion of child pornographic content. While in 2011, the proportion of such reports were only 8% (37 reports overall), in 2020, it was 40% which means 709 reports. The Hotline analysts forwarded content identified as sexual exploitation of children to the National Bureau of Investigation, as usual.

“According to our data, during the pandemic, the sharing of recordings of abuse towards children became more intense and visible. This might be because potential perpetrators have been confined into the online space. This has also increased the risk of children being exploited online.

What makes matters worse is that in the current situation, children in distress have less chance to ask for help, as personal contact with their friends and teachers has dramatically decreased,” – the authority wrote.

They added that special search engines designed to find child pornographic content are becoming more efficient and this is one of the reasons for the more prevalent visibility and the increase in the number of reported cases. Such a search engine is the Canadian-based Project Arachnid, which searches for footages of the sexual exploitation of children.