413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

Deep Web
There is big problem that is upcoming with video chatting where I am in the United
States, the guy is in the Philippines and I am giving direction to this minor in the
Philippines about what I want him or her to do and they are 10 or 12 years old. Well there
is a guy there that is running the whole thing and we are not really sure who that guy is
but for a certain amount of money I get to watch this from the comfort of my own home. I
am direct[ing]. (Federal Law Enforcement Official)
The surface web, comprising the websites indexed by major search engines, is only a small fraction of the
World Wide Web. The deep web is hidden, with sites invisible to search engines. Areas of the deep web
used for illegal activity are known as the dark web or darknet. One of the most popular ways to access the
dark web is Tor, originally short for The Onion Router, which uses multiple layers of encryption to
provide high degrees of anonymity. Tor can be used to access hidden sites hosted by networks in the deep
web or to increase security while navigating the surface web.
Bulletin Boards
Bulletin board systems (BBSes) predate the Internet, as they can be accessed directly via a modem.
Jenkins (2001) credits their continuing popularity for child pornography offenders to the strict oversight
of board administrators, or sysops, who vigilantly remove spam and messages condemning child
pornography. Some boards are highly restrictive and difficult to find, with vetted members and
passwords.
Social Network Platforms
Social networking and dating sites allow users to communicate and share information. Some social
networks, such as Ning, encourage the creation of private communities. As the United States Sentencing
Commission reports, “Child pornography offenders may utilize the infrastructure of such existing social
networks to develop a community in which to distribute images” (2012, 55).
Accessibility
One of the Internet’s main effects on child pornography is its increased accessibility, as individuals do not
need to visit sex shops or wait for material to arrive in the mail. They can download large amounts of
images and videos at any time without leaving home. As one offender described, he would not have sought
out child pornography if it was not available on the Internet:
I guess technology has made it easier to find child pornography. It has made it easier for
people to grab it. I wouldn’t have looked for it elsewhere if it wasn’t so easy to get from
the Internet. (H10)
A local law enforcement official described how the public and other law enforcement officials are unaware
of child pornography’s prevalence:
The public is unbelievably unaware of how much child pornography is out there. They
have no idea. I think I would take that one step further and say that not just the public,
anyone outside of specifically working it is completely unaware of how prevalent it is
because the other officers that I talk to, our command staff that are within our line of
command, don’t realize how prevalent it is. (Kansas City Law Enforcement Official)
Accessibility also affected offenders’ perceptions of the safety and legality in procuring child pornography.
One offender reflected upon how the Internet enabled his online behavior by giving him the sense of
invisibility:
I think that if it weren’t for the technology, I probably wouldn’t have done it. The
technology gave me nerve to get stuff that I wouldn’t have ever gone up to anyone to get. I
think there’s so much stuff happening out there, the chance of any person getting hit goes
down. I think that technology just does create extra noise, it’s harder to find things. (C7)
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