There are a lot fewer child sexual exploitation pages on the dark web, thanks to an infamous hacker group dedicated to their mission of cyber-vigilantism.
Anonymous, a notorious group of “hacktivists,” left their mark on the dark web, says a report published on HackRead. The dark web is a publicly inaccessible side of the internet where all sorts of illegal activities like child exploitation imagery—also known as child pornography—and drug dealings are carried out secretively. Anonymous has become known for targeting and attacking internet service providers, organizations and institutions that violate human rights.
So, when Anonymous got the tip-off about child porn services on the dark web, there was bound to be some fireworks.
Child Sexual Exploitation & The Dark Web
Reportedly, an Anonymous-affiliated hacker group has managed to take down the Freedom Hosting II servers, affecting more than 10,000 websites, gathering the email IDs of more than 380,000 users, and grabbing 74GB of files from the servers.
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Freedom Hosting II is regarded as one of the largest hosting services on the dark web with hosting rights of around 20% of all the sites on the underground platform. According to researcher Sarah J. Lewis, the websites bears the domain .onion and can be accessed through Tor, a browser program that conceals its users’ identities and their online activity from surveillance. In order to remain free from criminal charges, those who visit the dark web use these types of browsers.
After the targeted hacking, whoever visited these websites was welcomed by this message:
“Hello, Freedom Hosting II, you have been hacked.”
Although some of Anonymous’ past actions have been less than legal, the group’s vigilante mission makes them strictly against the creation and distribution of child pornography online. Because child pornography is illegal, Anonymous believes that it has carried out a social service by attacking the server.
The hackers revealed that more than half of the files hosted by Freedom Hosting II servers were linked to child porn.
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This is not the first time when Anonymous has done something like this. In 2015, the hacktivists shut down the world’s largest x-rated animal abuse forum and also deleted several animal abuse websites from the internet.
Child Sexual Exploitation & The Porn Industry
Child pornography has become more prevalent and larger than we would ever like to imagine. The people who actually get caught for the crime are just the tip of the iceberg. Child pornography is a business that has been expanding virally on the web for years and the material is only getting worse. In 2008, Internet Watch Foundation found 1,536 individual child abuse domains.
Every week there are over 20,000 images of child pornography posted on the web. What’s more, U.S Customs Services estimates that illegal child pornography is offered by approximately 100,000 websites. We’re here to raise awareness on the reality of the booming underground child porn industry and its massive negative effects on society.
Related: 400 Children Rescued/348 Adults Arrested After Police Take Down $4 Million Child Porn Empire
While the New York Times reports that about 1.1 million men in the U.S. are diagnosable with the mental illness of pedophilia, not all child porn consumers are pedophiles.
For the casual porn consumer, after some time, mainstream porn just doesn’t cut it anymore. Like other drug or behavioral addictions such as gambling, research has shown that consuming porn can escalate dramatically.
For some people, an interest in softcore porn will eventually evolve into a curiosity for more shocking and violent material—or in some more extreme cases, child pornography. Child pornography, or child sexual exploitation imagery, desensitizes the consumer to the harm against the children depicted, and it begins to normalize a sexual interest in children.
A recent review or scientific studies, court cases and personal accounts conducted by the National Center on Sexual Exploitation demonstrated the effects of adult pornography on the sexual exploitation of children. It showed that, for many, what initially began as a fascination or obsession with adult pornography, progressed to an involvement with child pornography.
Just listen to how pornography can lead to more extreme behaviors in this excerpt from one of the studies:
“One of the men arrested, [Defendant], who…allegedly abused his 18-month-old daughter—said he started watching child pornography after getting ‘burned out’ by regular porn. He needed something more titillating. Something a little sicker. That’s not that unusual for people addicted to internet porn.”
Related: How Mainstream Adult Entertainment Can Normalize Child Exploitation
In this case, the defendant’s issue began with an attraction to mainstream pornography. Over time, the thrill of regular adult pornography wore off, so he pushed the limits to satisfy his need for more illicit material, eventually resulting in allegedly abusing his infant daughter.
Still think porn is harmless? The science and research show otherwise.
To report an incident involving the possession, distribution, receipt, or production of child pornography, file a report on the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)’s website at www.cybertipline.com, or call 1-800-843-5678.
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