The Hotline.ie service was launched in November 1999 to provide an anonymous reporting service to members of the public who accidentally uncover illegal child pornography on the Internet.

The Hotline.ie service is supported and funded by the Internet Service Provider Association of Ireland (www.ispai.ie) who are committed to ensuring that Internet Services are not used to spread illegal child pornography on the Internet. The ISPAI agrees with the Irish government that a self-regulatory approach to the Internet has greater opportunities for success and effectiveness. The hotline is part funded by the EU Safer Internet Programme (ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/sip/index_en.htm)

The ISPAI now releases an annual report of Hotline.ie activities. This provides summary statistics of the reports received, the assessments and actions taken. Since its establishment the Hotline has been well accepted by the public and currently receives in the region of 2,000 reports per year. Up to the end of 2008, while many reports were assessed as referring to illegal content, none of the reports of child pornogrpahy were found to be hosted in Ireland. These detailed reports may be found on the Hotline.ie website (Publications Section)

The operations and procedures of Hotline.ie are overseen by the Office for Internet Safety (OIS) within the government Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform (www.internetsafety.ie). The OIS has worked closely with the hotline and continues to support and encourage its activities so that its important role in contributing to Internet safety can be successfully realised.

The Hotline.ie service is a founding member of the INHOPE Association (www.inhope.org) the International Association of Internet Hotlines. The INHOPE Association coordinates the activities of the individual hotlines and through regular meetings ensures the extensive sharing of information on the best practices for the operation of an Internet Hotline and tracing of illegal child pornography.

There are now 36 member hotlines in 31 countries worldwide (Jan. 2010).