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Crime Privacy Security Your Rights Online

Child Porn Is Being Hidden on Legal Commercial Websites (theguardian.com) 92

People who visit porn websites or search for adult pornography on the Web are facing the risk of being arrested for accessing child abuse images. The Internet Watch Foundation is warning that vicious minds are increasingly hiding criminal content on legal commercial websites, according to a report on The Guardian. The IWF found 743 websites in 2015, compared with 353 in 2013, in which child sexual abuse content was hosted on legal porn websites, and could be accessed if a special link was requested. From the report: "It has really started to become an accepted practice for the commercial side of the paedophilic community because this obfuscation technique is more effective at keeping its content live for longer," said Fred Langford, chief executive of the UK charity. Last year, the IWF found that 21% of the webpages containing illegal images and videos were commercial and those seeking to profit from the abuse were increasingly disguising it behind legal content, usually adult pornography. Langford said the trend raised the risk that people searching for adult pornography could unwittingly access child abuse images on disguised websites.
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Child Porn Is Being Hidden on Legal Commercial Websites

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  • by cyriustek ( 851451 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @09:48AM (#51955697)

    We need to ban all internet sites. THINK OF THE CHILDREN!

    • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21, 2016 @09:51AM (#51955713)
      But that's what got us into this mess in the first place. Stop thinking of the kids already!
    • by Anonymous Coward

      Disgusting, thinking of children. Officers, take this poster away!

    • by cyriustek ( 851451 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @09:55AM (#51955753)

      Please note that I said the previous comment with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek to illustrate the mindset of politicians and much of LE.

      * They want access to our data because of terrorist and child pornographers.

      * They spy on us because of terrorist and child pornographers.

      * They want encryption backdoored because of terrorists and child pornographers.

      * List this goes on and on.

      By using their logic, it would seem that legitimate site would either need to be banned, or monitoring software installed for LE to see when porn is put on to the site.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by boristdog ( 133725 )

        Yes, this has the stink of Mormons all over it.

        You know, the ones who just declared porn a "public health crisis" because they can't control themselves.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @10:44AM (#51956123) Homepage Journal

        They need to stop their crusade against paedophiles. As they point out, it's possible to stumble on this stuff while looking for perfectly legal porn. Trolls sometimes post child pornography, especially on forums not requiring registration like 4chan. People have been prosecuted over stuff like that because their IP address appeared in some logs or the police found an imagine in their browser cache that might not even have appeared on screen at any time.

        It's also rather unfortunate that the police use child pornography as a weapon. It's not uncommon for them to throw in a few child porn charges, especially if they made mistakes in the investigation. It's sick and it needs to stop.

        Go after the people who make that stuff, by all means, but recognize that a browser or P2P client merely downloading a file does not constitute "access" and certainly not viewing.

        • by myowntrueself ( 607117 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @10:50AM (#51956173)

          It's also rather unfortunate that the police use child pornography as a weapon. It's not uncommon for them to throw in a few child porn charges, especially if they made mistakes in the investigation. It's sick and it needs to stop.

          Its especially nasty when they take photos out of context and declare them "Child porn". Eg you have photos of your kids on the beach. Oh but whats this? There are OTHER PEOPLES KIDS in the background. Kids in skimpy clothing! OBVIOUS child porn, busted!

          • And lets not forget about people being charged because they have Anime images on their computer. And I'm not talking about the Hentai tentacle stuff.

            http://beforeitsnews.com/eu/20... [beforeitsnews.com]

            About a 5th of the way down is a good example of how insane the situation has become. If a person can get convicted by the picture in article what could a DA with an agenda do to you with the pictures you have of your kids in the bath tub?

        • by tnk1 ( 899206 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @01:01PM (#51957333)

          I agree that they shouldn't simply target people who "view" anything, especially if you can be entrapped into it by going to a perfectly legitimate adult porn site and suddenly, you're looking at child porn. That could affect anyone, being an actual pedophile is not required. That is just scary.

          Unless you can trace back monetary payments to the producers or traders of such material, I don't see how simply viewing that material exploits anyone, even if it is for more perverted reasons. It's like a Go to Jail, Go Directly to Jail card for doing nothing to anyone but viewing some pixels.

          Let's be clear, though. The people who produce this material are the scum of the Earth and need to go to jail immediately and stay there. That does not mean that we allow that sentiment to explode outward so that it affects even people who are unwillingly viewing that material. That's just too far.

          They should end the laws that make viewing the material illegal and concentrate on trading and, most importantly, production. Anything that monetarily supports that business needs to be stamped out. If no one is trading this material, then no one is going to see it, and there is less incentive to produce it. There will always be some sick people who just do that for their jollies and trade with like minded pedos, but I don't see why fighting that has to turn into something that can pull in non-pedos and ruin their lives.

          • Can a jury look at CP without barking the law?

            What about your own expert witness? say there is question on under/over 18 / 21?
            Look at the files to see if there was hacking / popup porn?

            Now if the jury / your own Expert witness can't view it then the case needs to be voided due to lack of due process / right to trial by jury / other rights.

        • by Anonymous Coward

          This is why I personally think that the resulting media, ie pictures, movies, etc. need to not be illegal. Even though I do think they're disgusting and I do not ever want to look at them, I don't think they should be illegal. It's trying to suppress symptoms. Just take the pictures as evidence and go after the makers already.

          (And don't get me started on the totally Bwittish "extreme porn law" where pictures with nothing but paid actresses and actors in them, delivered with certificate that everyone visible

      • Whooooooooosh!

      • They want access to our data because of terrorist and child pornographers.

        Politicians want access to our computers because they're getting desperate; they got all aroused and excited when they were told there was kiddie porn on the Internet and now that they've figured out they were lied to, theyre determined to look everywhere else.

    • That must be the politician in you that is talking.

    • by Dutch Gun ( 899105 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @10:20AM (#51955901)

      What's really sad is that the government has actually managed to desensitize me to at least the *idea* of something as vile as child porn and terrorism. I now mostly associate it with attempts to stomp out a tiny bit more of our freedom. Congratulations, government.

      • by TheGratefulNet ( 143330 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @10:38AM (#51956069)

        yup - the governments have all played that card too many times, they have cried 'wolf!' and now we are totally desensitized to it.

        I could care less about 'terrorism' or 'child porn' or anything else they want to make me feel AFRAID about. if the government wants it, its bad. that's how many of us feel, now. we have extreme distrust in anything the government says. they have ruined their rep beyond repair, world-wide (not a US problem but a human problem).

        I truly cannot tell who the bad guys are, anymore. but likely, if someone is 'here to help' they are likely a bad guy. my, now things have flipped on us!

        • I truly cannot tell who the bad guys are, anymore. but likely, if someone is 'here to help' they are likely a bad guy. my, now things have flipped on us!

          I'm not sure I'm quite that cynical yet, as I believe most people are still fundamentally good, even if a bit self-serving at times. I still assume that most of these people have the best of intentions, but are dangerously misguided in their narrow focus to ferret out those who would genuinely attempt to do us harm without looking at the big picture in their zealous pursuit of policy to benefit their investigations.

          Those charged with protecting us really need to acquire some serendipity - in other words, l

          • I admit I'm very cynnical.

            power positions attract the wrong people and to get INTO a power position means you have to be the lowest of the low. and then, once you get into power, you end up even worse and more corrupted then when you first entered office.

            the system encourages this, too. honest won't get you elected. and those elected have fully given up on trying to make things better for the little people. they now see office as a way to line their pockets and do as much damage at they can, then it wil

      • What's really sad is that the government has actually managed to desensitize me to at least the *idea* of something as vile as child porn and terrorism. I now mostly associate it with attempts to stomp out a tiny bit more of our freedom. Congratulations, government.

        Read a warrant in one of the cases where prosecutors are going after someone who posts child porn. You'll get resensitized by about the third word and want to throw up.

        The tech crowd understands the overreaching problems and dislike the strict liability and overbroad criminalization because they're engineers and distrust authority (and authority has been known to wildly abuse power, to be fair, just like cops sometimes make bad decisions about who to go after). But the people who produce and post goddamn

        • Please don't mistake my insistence on preserving our liberties as any indication that I believe we shouldn't investigate and prosecute these monsters to any possible legal extent. That's a terribly unfair argument to make. Note that I was talking about the "idea" of these evils that were becoming banal. But if your heart doesn't weep after actually hearing (let alone seeing) some of the atrocious things that are done to these innocent children, then you probably don't have much of a heart left.

          But using

      • I was thinking that same thing unfortunately.

        Out of control government and LE are the new terrorists...

  • Trust random internet porn sites? Or even mainstream ones (I suppose there must in theory be some.)
  • by JoeyRox ( 2711699 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @09:52AM (#51955729)
    Sometimes when I click on a video the female protagonist underaged. Then I notice her tramp stamp tattoo and c-section scar and go merrily on about my "business".
    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Pretty much this. I would bet these "child abuse images" are home-made videos or pictures where the participants look of age. It's difficult to visually guess someone's age. Given there was a fairly well publicized case where a man was charged with possession of child pornography where the video in question was a legally made video with an actress who was 26 years old... but looked young.

      Realistically, how is the general public supposed to know if a posted amateur picture or video is of a mature looking

      • They don't. The anti sex lobby probably want to use the uncertainty as a weapon against all remotely sexual material.

      • Pretty much this. I would bet these "child abuse images" are home-made videos or pictures where the participants look of age. It's difficult to visually guess someone's age. Given there was a fairly well publicized case where a man was charged with possession of child pornography where the video in question was a legally made video with an actress who was 26 years old... but looked young.

        Realistically, how is the general public supposed to know if a posted amateur picture or video is of a mature looking 17 year old or a young looking 26 year old?

        In some jurisdictions, UK for example, it wouldn't matter if she looked young but was legal; looking young is enough for it to count as cp and get registered as a sex offender.

      • by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        Read up on Traci Lords.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    I predict "reputable" US-based sites will make a big public to-do about voluntarily start screening all content and working with the FBI, in hopes of attracting end users who can "rest assured" that they won't accidentally stumble upon illegal content.

  • by Frosty Piss ( 770223 ) * on Thursday April 21, 2016 @09:54AM (#51955745)

    Click bait / flamebait / nonsense-bait / bait.

  • by turkeydance ( 1266624 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @10:00AM (#51955797)
    officer, don't you read /.?
  • even back in the BBS days sites had hidden areas ---- this is not news

    exactly what can be found in those hidden areas oh gee a subject that is now "legal" may have pre-legal stuff stashed somewhere on the same site. ---- not news either

    notice the article had the narrative required swipe at TOR (btw news folks TOR is a network not a Browser)

    The other note is they lump all categories of CP into one bundle which needs to stop if we are to have a decent dialog on this.

    AGE , type and treatment of the subjects do

    • by Anonymous Coward

      I fear that removing pedophiles from the gene pool is impossible. We need to have more rational conversations about helping people, and finding a safe outlet for their urges, if we ever want the abuse to stop.

  • What ? Simply in bizarre subdirectories with weird names on plain "normal" webservers ?~

    But I though that the children-pedo-terrists were all hiding using Tor, GPG, end-to-end chat encryption, "China's Great Firewall"-busting VPNs, and all those other "anonymity-protecting" technologies that our governments want to rightfully take away from the evil hippies menacing us ~~

  • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @10:12AM (#51955859)

    I remember going through RedTube searching for Russian blowjobs (because that search produces some nice cute girls performing my favorite sexual act). Low an behold a Siberian Mouse video that was discussed on 4chan a day earlier comes up in my search results. I did nothing but apparently some others on 4chan reported it. I say apparently because either RedTube didn't care that they were serving child pornography to a legitimate search or the guys said they reported it just to prevent others reporting it. Either way it was on there for several weeks before anything happened.

    • "These creatures you call mice, you see, they are not quite as they appear. They are merely the protrusion into our dimension of vastly hyperintelligent pandimensional beings."

      -Douglas Adams

      As for rodent- or for that matter pandimensional-being-porn, I guess to each his own.

  • by phatsonic ( 2499966 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @10:21AM (#51955913) Homepage

    Yeah, I'm sure that rising number has nothing to do with increasingly weird laws... For example in Germany it can be classified as "child porn" to have an actor act childish and LOOK like they theoretically COULD be under 18 - even if the actor proves to be an adult in front if the camera, for example by providing legal documents. Also even innocent pictures of, for example, children playing on the beach are increasingly classified as porn now. I'm not trying to marginalize a real, existing problem here, but it doesn't help that jurisdictions world-wide actively inflate the statistics for their own agendas. Quite the opposite in fact...

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • We now have the technology to create photorealistic animation using CGI, e.g. the new Jungle Book movie. So, if I create a video of someone naked that looks 12 but is actually completely computer generated... is is still illegal porn? Where should we draw the line?
  • 1. Are we talking 12 yr olds and younger, or 17 yr olds?
    2. If the former... I have trouble believing that there's *that* big a market for it that it's worth all this effort.... Does *anyone* have any statistics (and I don't mean from funnymentalists or morons, er, Mormons.

                        mark

    • My dad's coworker that I stayed with when I was in highschool had skin mags with pictures of naked 14-year old girls in them ("meses von 14" or something like that). Yeah, he was a perv, but apparently there is a market for younger than 17. I don't see the appeal of prepubescent kids myself, but there would be no supply if there was no demand.
  • by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @12:16PM (#51956939)
    You can hide child porn images inside cat pictures... why don't we start doing that and start getting those damn cat lovers arrested for kitty porn?
  • If a person accidentally accesses child pornography they should never be arrested in the first place. Crime involves an intention to break the law. Without investigators establishing a proof of intent there should never be an arrest in the first place. Next, the issue is who was on that computer. Without proof that the suspect was the one actually using the computer and that the suspect intended to watch or download child pornography an arrest is simply illegal harassment. The time to
    • by quintessencesluglord ( 652360 ) on Thursday April 21, 2016 @01:10PM (#51957401)

      Misses the point.

      The intent isn't to get pedophiles off the street, but effectively ban all porn. You had the same MO in the 80s with Judith Reisman claiming Playboy facilitated child abuse by having underage looking models, and shoots that simulated underage girls (because your standard 12 year old has 34DD breasts)..

      I mean after this report why would anyone visit any porn site, knowing full well there was a possibility of child porn there unless that's what they were looking for? You can't even report it without an admission of a crime.

      Even in the days before the internet, child porn stings were incredibly dubious (really, read the history. The vast majority of child porn was produced by the US government for sting operations), but any sense of due process is just covering for child molesters. Where there is smoke there must be fire.

      The real problem is that while decency laws are localized, the web is not, and what may be perfectly legal in one jurisdiction is worthy of hanging in another. This sets the stage for The Great Firewall, and ultimately shutting down all porn sites, just in case.

  • Literally every different type of website has something 'hidden' on it. The only criteria is that it has been remotely compromised.

    This is such a massive problem that Google have gone to lengths to add features into their Webmaster Tools to hint to website operators [google.com] that their site has been compromised.

    So this is staggeringly unsurprising. It's just another reminder that the average tolerance for security is very low.

  • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) * on Thursday April 21, 2016 @01:08PM (#51957373)

    People who visit porn websites or search for adult pornography on the Web are facing the risk of being arrested for accessing child abuse images.

    could be accessed if a special link was requested.

    Good thing they don't leave the court system to journalists. Yeah ok he was in the same bar as that murderer, arrest him too! I think it's pretty reasonable to expect to be found guilty of a crime if you actually, you know, commit the crime. If you're not interested in kiddie porn there's a good chance you won't be clicking on that "special link". IANAL but I think the intent part is pretty important too. If you click on a link that says "Click here to send flowers to your girlfriend", even if that link opened up a kiddie porn page the prosecution is going to have to work a little harder than that to prove that you actually were interested in the porn and not, say, sending flowers to your girlfriend...

  • Clearly what we need to do is scan every person in the world and maintain a database so that they can be identified and their age confirmed in the database. That way any photo that appears on the internet anywhere will have the identities and ages of all participants verified no matter the source. I guess we should also add that to all of the operating systems by law too as well as every camera firmware. If a face or identifiable body part appears in a file, it should obviously be immediately identified.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    Do any of you find it strange that if you were to upload a video with some copyrighted music in it, the video would be blocked in a heartbeat; yet this child porn sites manage to stay working for years.

    Don't you find that odd?

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