In 2021 the number of reports about illegal or harmful content on the internet increased more than twice: the Lithuanian hotline “Švarus internetas“ (Clean Internet) received 3558 reports about prohibited or harmful content on minors.

In 2021 Švarus internetas received 3558 reports which was a record number of reports received since the establishment of the hotline in 2007. In comparison to 2020 (1373 reports received), the number of reports increased by almost 2.6 times. The reports were sent not only by Lithuanian internet users but an unusually large number of reports about child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on Lithuanian servers were also received from Internet hotlines in other countries, INHOPE members. The following actions were taken concerning 380 cases:

• 108 reports about CSAM were entered into the ICCAM database of INHOPE.
• 80 reports were forwarded to the police department for further investigation due to the content being forbidden to be disseminated on Lithuanian servers (72 reports out of 80 were about CSAM).
• 31 reports were forwarded to the Office of the Inspector of Journalistic Ethics for further investigation due to the suspicion of information having a detrimental effect on minors.
• 161 reports were forwarded to internet service providers, website owners, social network operators in various countries with a Notice and Take Down mark about illegal internet content on their websites or networks for removal as soon as possible.

1551 reports received (mostly about CSAM) were repetitive, i.e., they were about the same content, which had been reported to INHOPE or the police department. Therefore, no additional actions were taken.


Learn more about Švarus internetas in their video here.