In the third quarter of this year, the hotline in Lithuania received 747 reports of content on the internet that is prohibited and has a negative impact on minors. Compared to the same period last year, the number of reports increased by 78%.

"Of the total number of reports received, the number of reports of child sexual abuse images in particular almost doubled compared to the same quarter last year. We received around 200," says Irma Kazlienė, Head of the Communications Regulatory Authority of the Republic of Lithuania (RRT) Digital Services Group.

RRT experts investigated every single report received and 69%, or 512 reports, were confirmed. Of these, 273 were duplicates.

In this quarter, 13 reports were forwarded to the Police Department for further investigation for suspicion of prohibited content on Lithuanian service stations, and 6 reports were forwarded to the Office of the Inspector of Journalists' Ethics for further investigation for suspicion of content that may have a negative impact on minors.

"Between July and September, our experts also provided 117 consultations on online safety, blocking content, content filtering tools and the use of social networks. Most of the requests, 80%, were for hacked social networking accounts," says RRT.

Most of the new reports (186) of images of child sexual abuse were forwarded to other countries hotlines (members of INHOPE).

"The rest were forwarded to ISPs, 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 remove it as soon as possible. We also cooperate with the Police Department and the Office of the Inspector of Journalists' Ethics, to whom we promptly forward notifications," explains Kazlienė.