Hotline Operations Manual

Introduction

What is SafenetCY?

SafenetCY is the Cyberethics Safer Internet Hotline through which illegal or disturbing content can be reported. The hotline operates island-wide (serving also Turkish-Cypriots and other minorities) and focuses on reports of child sexual abuse images and racism/xenophobia. The project engages actors from the government and civil society, therefore contributing towards the eradication of cyber crime in more than one sector. The hotline offers the opportunity to all people to report through the various different reporting methods that it entails (i.e. telephone, email and website).

What are the specific Objectives for the Hotline?

• Operate an island-wide hotline for Internet users in Cyprus to report illegal and harmful material and activities, so as to reduce the circulation of illegal content on the Internet.
• Inform users of the hotline’s scope of activity and how to contact it; clarify to the users the difference between the hotline’s activities and those of public authorities, and inform them of the existence of alternative ways of reporting illegal content.
• Establish, if necessary, and operate a hotline to receive information from the public relating to illegal
• Content which will act as a national alert platform or as an alert platform common to several Member States;
• Draw up a manual of procedures in cooperation with law enforcement authorities and in accordance with best practice guidelines;
• Deal rapidly with complaints received;
• Where permitted under national law and the manual of procedures, undertake a preliminary assessment of the legality of the content reported and trace its origin;
• Forward the report to the appropriate body for action (police, ISP, correspondent hotline);
• Conduct systematic notice to the host service provider of content assessed as illegal child abuse material, unless the police have requested the hotline not to do so;
• Participate actively in networking with other local stakeholders;
• Take part in cross-border discussions and exchange of best practice with other co-funded hotlines and with other stakeholders as part of the network.
• Contribute to the European URL database once set up by the network coordinator.

GENERAL PROCEDURES

The person who wants to report illegal content on the Internet that s/he came across may choose one of the following ways to submit a report. Online reports are preferable since they are accepted automatically. A guidelines section is given in the SafenetCY website in order to provide a complete set of information, about the reporting procedure.

• Online: Filling in the online reporting form.
• Telephone: 22674747
• Email: Reporting by sending us an email with your report to the following email address: reports@cyberethics.info

In order to make the processing of any report as effective as possible the Hotline requires to be provided with specific information on the location and type of illegal content that the person who wants to make the report encountered.

For each different type of report it is required to provide SafenetCY Hotline with the corresponding information:

• Website: Website address (URL), type of content, a free text description of the content.
• Newsgroup: Name of newsgroup, message ID, message sender, message subject, date of the message, type of message content, a free text description of the content.
• Peer-to-peer: File link, Server link, date that came across with the content, type of content, a free text description of the content.

Any actions taken by SafenetCY are within the limits that are determined by the Cyprus Law. Illegal content is also considered any content that is defined illegal by the Cyprus Law.