I just want to say THANK YOU for all the kind and flattering word said in response to my post about my "dark web" research :blushing: I was a little nervous about posting that, because most people react like I'm crazy when I tell them about this kind of stuff, but I should have known you guys would understand :floorlaugh: I love Websleuths!
I don't want to sidetrack too much, but I wanted to respond to one question because a few have and commented about it:
YES, the FBI absolutely does monitor the Deep Web. Im sure they have an entire bureau dedicated to it, and there was quite a bit of paranoia on that forum I visited. Apparently 2 of their members were busted not long before I went there, and there was talk about a "war on pedophiles" and all of their favorite sites being shut down, the targets of DOS attacks (i.e. operation darknet, which I referenced upthread) they are definitely monitored and they know it. Don't be fooled by the moniker "hidden internet"-while these sites are hidden in the sense that you cant access them from a regular internet browser, they are not difficult to find and the FBI certainly knows how to find them, and do undercover operations there all the time.
As to how the pages are allowed to exist in the first place-it is really too long and complicated to get into the logistics here, but basically they are not operating under any sovereign laws regarding content. If you go to the Tor website (which is legit and NOT illegal, BTW) you can get more information about how it all works. I do want to say for the record that there are legitimate uses for Tor, and it is unfortunate that the sick freaks of the world take advantage of their services and ruin it for everyone.
So, the problem with catching people USING Tor for illegal practices-i.e. viewing child *advertiser censored*-is that it is completely anonymized. It's not like a normal internet connection where they can trace your IP address, or work with your ISP to catch you. People who use tor are very secretive and don't tend to divulge anything about their identity. For transactions, they use something called bitcoins, which is an untraceable currency.
The FBI has had some success though-in particular in busting child *advertiser censored* rings. There are a few ways they do this-First, there are limited access CP forums, where the only way you can gain access is to produce your own original content. That way, the logic goes, only true pedophiles will be able to get into the inner circle-and obviously LE is not going to produce its own child *advertiser censored* to gain access. So it would seem like an insurmountable task, right? Well, the good thing is that there is always bound to be at least one person who gets sloppy. They will get busted for something, and faced with hard time they will cut a deal, giving LE access to their private little group-and from there, it is only a matter of time before everyone gets busted.
For people who manufacture child *advertiser censored*,they have a lot of different ways of doing it that I won't get into here-but they are very resourceful. But for an inside look into how one of these investigations worked, read this affidavit:
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/alt.privacy/PyTV9wy-OS0
One of the things they do on occasion is take a still shot of the adults who star (puke) in these productions, and release them to the media. They did this recently and caught a couple of nasty child pornographers in Oregon:
http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1209/120905portland.htm
In some rare occasions they will release an image of a child-only their face, of course. There was a case-I can't remember the exact details of it, but they took the rare step of releasing a picture of a child who was being sexually exploited to see if anyone could identify her. It only took a matter of days, IIRC, and once they found and rescued her they made sure that all photos of her were removed from the web to protect her privacy. There was also the famous "Disney Girl" case, where photos of a child who was NOT a victim but apparently a friend of hers who went along with her to Disney World. By identifying that child, they were able to locate her friend-a little girl adopted from Russia by a pedophile, who kept her as a virtual sex slave for yearsShe was rescued and is now and is a wonderful advocate for children, very much in the public eye. Her name is Masha Allen-one of my shero's :heartbeat:
I do wish there was more we could do, as citizens, to help. One idea I have had for a long time is to create a database with pictures of all children who are used in child *advertiser censored*. Just their faces, obviously, maybe along with some pictures of identifiable objects in the background. Then allow access to this database by certain members of the public-teachers, day care workers, anyone who sees children in their line of work and may recognize a child who is being exploited. But I do have to say that the FBI, ICE, Interpol, and the other LE agencies are very proactive and do great investigative work. The stuff they are exposed to every day is horrific, but they are passionate about saving these children and bringing their abusers to justice. Go to the Innocent Images International Task Force on the FBI website to learn more about what they do-it may put your mind at ease:
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/vc_majorthefts/innocent/innocent
(Sorry for the long winded and totally off-topic post, I'm just really passionate about this! Maybe I should write a book on it or something. Oh, wait....that's right, I am!
Regarding this but not really, it seems the Dark Web isn't just bad things though. Read an article that it was used by the Syria dissident's against Assad, in Egypt when they shut down the internet and I'm sure that it's also being used in China.
Essentially, it's for people who want to communicate without it being tracked but obviously that includes very bad bad people. I'm wondering if terrorist also attempt to communicate this way.
