I just got an e-mail that disturbed me. It concerned the fact that these “underground child porn rings” we hear about operating in great secrecy, actually operate very openly on the web.
I got a link (which I have deleted and would never have shared anyway) that directed me to homepages that on the face of it, looked just like legitemate porn sites. They required memberships, gave previews and all that. However, this was fucking child porn these bastards were selling!
Instead of ranting on endlessly about how these pigfuckers should rot in hell, I ask you: How the hell can something like this operate freely on the web?
— G. Raven
p.s.
And no, I’m afraid we’re not just talking about nudity here.
The operate in countries where the authorities don’t give a flying shit about this sort of thing, especially if they get part of the profits.
I’ve been on the web from the beginning and nothing would shock me anymore. Not to make light of a horrible thing but I can’t believe that anyone with an Internet connection for more than 10 minutes would be suprised about this.
Huh? The web heavily regulated??? Which web? Where? I always thought the web was the last place on earth where anything and everything goes! As you have seen. Not that I disagree with your OP at all, the sexual use and abuse of children is an unconscienable crime. But I’m unaware of any truly successful attempts to regulate the web at all.
I agree with Sealamon88. We should keep chipping away at the problem by reporting these crimes to the ISPs and other agencies. But I fear they will just pop up anew elsewhere.
OK, so the web isn’t so much regulated as easy to trace. Maybe it’s just my old ways, but I remember when I was lookjing for something truly shocking I’d only go to Usenet (that was before it drowned in spam) or failing that, IRC.
For me, the webpages have always been something people could be made to account for, since you need to actually pay for having a specific domain. On irc or Undernet, you just log in , download and leave.
I’ve sent mail to some shady Russian ISP that seems to host this thing, I’ve yet to receive a reply.
Oh well, I just thought the world hadn’t gone quite this bad, quite so openly.
Remember that a lot of these links to child porn sites are just circle jerks…you simply get passed around from one link list to another. The actual sites don’t exist, they are just trying to get click-throughs.
The site is hosted by a Russian ISP? There’s your explanation. According to the recent “Newsweek” cover story on child porn online, the Russian government does not consider the production of child pornography a serious crime. This unfortunately means that they generally don’t give a damn if ISPs in their country are hosting kiddie porn sites.
Here is a list of organisations involved in getting child porn off the net. Most of the organisations listed also maintain comprehensive lists of local and international agencies involved in getting child porn offline.
For those who aren’t aware of it, ML is currently located in China where net access to things like Western news services is tightly controlled - I can understand why he’s somewhat surprised by encountering this stuff online.
What do you consider child porn? I agree that pre- and mid-pubescent girls shouldn’t be having nude, sexual, pictures taken of them, but what about 15/16/17* year olds? They’re not legal, but they’re not children. I’m 19, and I don’t really want to see 26 year old ex-strippers naked, I wanna see people my age. Do you consider that child porn? I admit that I’m getting older, so the ages I’d like to see are rising, but when I was 16/17, was it immoral if I were looking for 14/15/16/17 year olds? I honestly don’t think so. Another point to consider is that until rather recently, it was not at all unusual for a mid-20s man to marry an early or mid-teenage girl. Perhaps it’s not wrong, per se, for a male to be attracted to a younger female, but that society has supressed that aspect of sexuality to the point of it’s perversion, as would be seen with pre- and mid- pubescent nudie pictures.
I realize I’m taking an unpopular stance here, but I just don’t think it’s wrong for a young male to want to see young females. I concede the point that while this may be healthy and natural in youth, as the person ages, the minimum age of sexual attraction should rise at a rate of about 1:1, and that a 45 year old guy looking at 15 year old Russian “black cats” is just… fucked up.
–Tim
*I stop listing at 17 because 18 and up is legal, not because I am only attracted to pre-17 year old girls.
You’re not going to like my opinion, but geez I don’t think that looking at porn is a god given right for pubescent males. And quite frankly I don’t give a shit about your perving at young girls for the satisfying of your urges. I don’t have an issue with women who are of legal age choosing to do porn. I have intense reservations about the use of young girls for porn. Do you really believe that those girls are there of their own free will posing?
Having come across a host of kiddieporn sites the other day, showing children aged from around 7 upwards engaged in a variety of sexual acts not just with each other and adults, but also with animals and objects, I’m surprised by anyone thinking that kiddieporn is simply nude pictures of minors. Hell, one site I came across the other day had pics that were allegedly of Kosovo children being raped by soldiers during the war.
There is some really sick shit out there, and it’s someone’s child who’s being exploited (even if it’s not mine), just as someone, somewhere, knows the sick fucks who are putting this stuff online (not to mention creating the mirror sites which ensure that it’s difficult to get it offline).
Just off-hand, I’ve never seen a child pornography site. I haven’t looked, but I figure what with so much spam and all, if it was common it would have shown up in my inbox.
I agree kiddie-porn=yucky and I understand the outrage, but I do have to say that this doesn’t seem to be a major operation. Also, the 19 year old who asked about underage teenagers posing had something of a point. I don’t think that pornography is a god-given right by any means, but I think it is natural for teenagers to be attracted to other teenagers. (I also think that if an adult is attracted to teenagers it is not a sign that they are total pervs [but they better not push it]). I’ve only just exited my teens a couple of years ago and I’m still attracted to girls who are young teens. The thing is that I’m much more attracted to girls my own age. But back to my original point. Child ponography=wrong; non-child pornography=probably not a really good idea, but not terrible either. In any case, It doesn’t seem like we’re being deluged with this stuff.