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Tag: child porn

  • Teens Tweet Group Sex Video, Get Hit with Child Porn Charges

    Teens Tweet Group Sex Video, Get Hit with Child Porn Charges

    Four Joliet, Illinois teens could spend the next few years in a juvenile facility after posting a group sex video on Twitter.

    Three boys, aged 14, 15, and 16, and one girl, aged 15, were arrested after the girl’s mother notified police of the footage, which was circulating around Twitter. All four teens have been charged with distributing child pornography.

    Of course, it’s more complicated than that. Did the teens technically distribute child porn? Yes, it was a group sex video involving minors. But they were the minors in the video. Can teens really be charged with child porn if it’s their own body in said “porn”?

    Yes they can, and have. Over the past few years, with the rise of sexting, smartphone cameras, and social media, states have been scrambling to figure out how to deal with teens’ technological expressions of sexuality.

    Teen sexting laws vary from state to state – with some having already penned new laws to address the practice. Other states, however, can only consider the act of disseminating your own naked photos and videos as child porn.

    Illinois authorities have chosen the latter route in this case.

    “The child pornography offense that was charged is in place for a reason, because we don’t want to accept that type of behavior as a society. It’s making a strong statement, and I think it’s important to do so, to send a message to others that kids shouldn’t be involved in this type of behavior, and hopefully this will serve as a deterrent,” said Joliet Police Chief Brian Benton.

    Did you catch that? There’s a huge problem with this logic, and Benton’s statement reads like the laws are in place to legislate morality, as opposed to really protecting children. Don’t like what teens are up to? Threaten them with lifelong sex offender designation. That oughta do it.

    “It’s an incident you may not recover from,” said Benton.

    Exactly. Are we really going to put teens on sexual offender databases for the rest of their lives for being kids and making arguably dumb decisions? I’m sure we can all agree that posting a sex tape on Twitter is ill-advised – especially for a 15-year-old. But is it really a sex crime?

    Image via Thinkstock

  • John Grisham Child Porn Comments Went Too Far

    Author John Grisham has apologized for comments he made regarding child pornography during an interview with the Telegraph.

    Grisham claimed that the United States is wrongly convicting too many men for viewing child pornography. He said that many of them simply had too much to drink, started surfing the web, and accidentally stumbled upon pictures of children.

    “We have prisons now filled with guys my age. Sixty-year-old white men in prison who’ve never harmed anybody, would never touch a child,” he said while promoting his new book Gray Mountain.

    “But they got online one night and started surfing around, probably had too much to drink or whatever, and pushed the wrong buttons, went too far and got into child porn,” the best-selling novelist added.

    To get his point across, Grisham referenced his good friend from law school, explaining that this is what happened to him and he was sentenced to three years in prison.

    “His drinking was out of control, and he went to a website. It was labelled ‘sixteen year old wannabee hookers or something like that’. And it said ’16-year-old girls’. So he went there. Downloaded some stuff – it was 16 year old girls who looked 30,” Grisham explained.

    “He shouldn’t ’a done it. It was stupid, but it wasn’t 10-year-old boys,” he added. “He didn’t touch anything. And God, a week later there was a knock on the door: ‘FBI!’ and it was sting set up by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to catch people – sex offenders – and he went to prison for three years.”

    On Thursday, October 16, Grisham issued an apology , via a statement from his publisher Random House. According to the statement, Grisham’s comments “were in no way intended to show sympathy for those convicted of sex crimes, especially the sexual molestation of children.”

    He said that anyone who participates in child pornography should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. “I can think of nothing more despicable,” he said. “I regret having made these comments, and apologize to all.”

    What do you think about Grisham’s remarks? Leave your comments below.

  • Microsoft Is Scanning Email for Child Porn Too

    Google’s not the only one automatically scanning your communications for traces of child porn.

    A Pennsylvania man has been arrested after he attempted to send child porn via a live.com email address. The arrest came after Microsoft tipped the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about the illegal images, which officials subsequently found in the man’s OneDrive account.

    This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention. Like Google, Microsoft lets you know in its terms of service that automated processes are looking for child porn.

    “In many cases Microsoft is alerted to violations of the Code of Conduct through customer complaints, but we also deploy automated technologies to detect child pornography or abusive behavior that might harm the system, our customers, or others,” says Microsoft.

    Also, Microsoft has openly discussed this practice for years. This isn’t even the first instance of Microsoft alerting authorities to child porn. A little over a year ago, a Florida man was charged with 15 counts of child pornography possession after police found more the 3,000 images on his SkyDrive – thanks to a tip from Microsoft.

    But the conversation has been ramped up recently, thanks to the recent bust of a Texas man for emailing child porn – a bust facilitated by a Google tip.

    Google has spent the past few days explaining that their automated systems are looking for child porn, and only child porn.

    “It is important to remember that we only use this technology to identify child sexual abuse imagery, not other email content that could be associated with criminal activity (for example using email to plot a burglary),” said Google in one of the best corporate statements ever.

    Dedicated privacy hawks might argue that any sort of intrusion, whether well-intentioned or not, is unacceptable. But I’d be willing to bet that the majority of people are happy with child porn busts, and are ok with the automated scanning that facilitates them. Of course, this sentiment would quickly change if it turned out the scanning went far beyond this narrow scope. Other than ads, of course – we know Google scans message keywords to target ads.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Google To Expand Efforts To Block Child Exploitation

    Google has been battling child exploitation on the Internet since at least 2006. This past summer, the company announced some additional measures it was taking.

    For one, Google set up a new $2 million fund to encourage the development of third-party tools to combat the problem. It also announced a cross-industry database where companies and organizations can share info to prevent the further spread of known exploitative images. This all amounted to a new $5 million from the company.

    A month later, the company came under some criticism as Microsoft announced that it would start including pop-ups aiming to deter those seeking out such content. Google elected not to do this, saying its current methods were better.

    Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt wrote an article for the Daily Mail on Sunday talking about the company’s efforts again.

    “Last week 348 people were arrested in Canada – and 386 young kids rescued – in one of the largest child sex investigations ever seen. It defies belief that anyone would sexually abuse children, especially teachers and doctors entrusted with their care,” he wrote. “But this awful case highlights the depths to which humanity can sink. And while society will never wholly eliminate such depravity, we should do everything in our power to protect children from harm.”

    “That’s why internet companies like Google and Microsoft have been working with law enforcement for years to stop paedophiles sharing illegal pictures on the web,” he continued. “We actively remove child sexual abuse imagery from our services and immediately report abuse to the authorities. This evidence is regularly used to prosecute and convict criminals. But as David Cameron said in a speech this summer, there’s always more that can be done. We’ve listened, and in the last three months put more than 200 people to work developing new, state-of-the-art technology to tackle the problem.”

    Schmidt went on to explain that Google has “fine tuned” its search engine to prevent links to abusive material from appearing in search results, but admits that not algorithm is perfect (something Google often reminds us of for a variety of reasons).

    Still the work Google has alrady done, he says, has resulted in over 100,000 queries that have been “cleaned up”.

    Google plans to roll out the changes in over 150 languages.

    Image: Google Solve For X

  • 386 Kids Rescued During Child Pornography Bust

    A worldwide porn bust has led to the arrest of f 348 people and saved the lives of 386 children around the world. The operation was called Project Spade and has been in the works since 2010. The project started in Canada but involved Interpol in more than 50 countries including Australia, Spain, Mexico, Norway and Greece.

    “This operation shows that international police cooperation works. Despite large amounts of material and that this is time-consuming work, this shows that the Internet is not a safe haven for crimes against children,” Norwegian police spokesman Bjoern-Erik Ludvigsen said in a statement.

    The investigation began with a Toronto man accused of running a child pornography film distribution company. Investigators executed a search warrant at Way’s company and home, seizing about 1,000 pieces of evidence, including computers and DVDs. They also went undercover and started making purchases from his website.

    Way was charged with 24 offenses, including child pornography and is currently incarcerated. Police have also called his film distribution company, Azov Films, a criminal organization.

    Over 100 people were arrested in Canada and 76 in the U.S. Others were arrested in other countries. Overall Project Spade has saved 348 children who were currently being used in pornography and could have potentially saved thousands of others. The Canadian police say that the investigation is still ongoing and there will likely be more arrests made in connection with the case.

    Image from YouTube.

  • Malware Fools Man into Turning Himself in for Child Porn

    Malware Fools Man into Turning Himself in for Child Porn

    A Virginia man has been arrested and held without bond after he turned himself in to police for viewing child porn.

    The story is a bit more complicated than it sounds, mainly due to the fact that it was a clever bit of malware that prompted Jay Matthew Riley to go to the police in the first place.

    According to police, Riley came into the station to ask if he had any warrants out for him on child pornography charges. Apparently, Riley received a message that claimed to be from the FBI, stating that he had been caught with child porn and that his only two options were to pay a fine or to face criminal prosecution.

    Of course, the message was not from the FBI. It was ransomware, a specific type of malware that locks up a user’s computer and demands a “ransom” – usually monetary compensation paid to the virus’ creators.

    Riley voluntarily handed over his computer to police, who found “several inappropriate messages and photos of underage girls.” This discovery led to a search warrant, where police confiscated more devices.

    As a result, Riley has been charged with 3 counts of possession of child pornography, 1 count of using a communication device to solicit certain offenses involving children, and 1 count of indecent liberties with a minor.

    As The Verge points out, it’s possible that the same ransomware that displayed the fake FBI warning could have also planted illicit images on Riley’s computer. The police specifically state that Riley was “viewing child pornography” on his computer when the fake message popped up – but once again, some ransomware has been known to also display these types of images on victims’ screens in order to increase the odds of them paying up.

    [Prince William Daily-Monitor, Image via TechRepublic]

  • Child Porn Sharing Discovered on Facebook User Page

    Not sure how much of it is truth and how much is just shock value, but WND is reporting that they have discovered a startling child pornography hub centered around a cluster of Facebook profile pages created for the purpose of sharing images and stories from child molesters and perverts.

    According to WND a user profile page belonging to “Kidsex Young” has been responsible for bringing together degenerates who get off on child sex and abuse, and has served as a place for sharing information and photos. They speak of specific cases in great detail of which I will repeat none of hear.

    The article from WND also features censored pictures of children in compromising positions which are said to have been obtained from the site. The FBI has been alerted about the posts, but it is believed many more exist.

    We have heard of Facebook busting people for all kinds of things, but this has to be about the sickest and most disturbing catch of them all. As I said, I found no other sources to corroborate WND’s claims, but I have no doubt such pages could exist.

    [Update]

    A representative on behalf of Facebook has reached out to us to assure users that they have no knowledge of any such pages within the networking site and that they are indeed constantly working to fight any kind of abuse or exploitation within their spaces.

    Please take a moment and read through their policy on issues of abuse or exploitation on the site:

    “Nothing is more important to Facebook than the safety of the people that use our site and this material has absolutely no place on Facebook. We have zero tolerance for child pornography being uploaded onto Facebook and are extremely aggressive in preventing and removing childexploitive content. We scan every photo that is uploaded to the site using PhotoDNA to ensure that this illicit material can’t be distributed and we report all instances of exploitative content to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. We’ve built complex technical systems that either block the creation of this content, including in private groups, or flag it for quick review by our team of investigations professionals.”

    “We’ve worked with the National Center forMissing and Exploited Children and the New York State Attorney General’s Office in the U.S., as well as the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre in the U.K., to use known databases of child exploitive material to improve our detection and bring those responsible to justice.”

    “We feel we’ve created a much safer environment on Facebook than exists off-line, where people can share this disgusting material in the privacy of their own homes without anyone watching. However, we’re constantly refining and improving our systems and processes and building upon our relationships with NCMEC and law enforcement agencies specializing in child protection to create an even safer space.”

    Here’s a screenshot of what WND claim they discovered on Facebook:

  • Thief Turns Self In To Help Expose Pedophile

    Thief Turns Self In To Help Expose Pedophile

    An unnamed thief in Australia turned himself in to police back in October. Now, he is being shown leniency by the magistrate who sentenced him, and being praised for his actions. Why the sudden spate of conscience? And why the leniency?

    The man had happened upon a car with its windows open. He had stolen two cellphones and a wallet and walked away. But, upon examining his haul, he found that the cellphones contained pictures of pornographic images of children. He immediately took the phones to the nearest police station, turned himself in and told his story.

    The man had already been wanted on an car theft charge and agreed to be arrested. However, his actions allowed the police to arrest the 46 year-old owner of the phones on child pornography charges.

    The man went before Magistrates Court on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to the charges against him, seven in all. The magistrate, however, went easy on him and praised him for his actions.

    “You did the right thing,” she said. “That kind of offending is very serious. You are to be commended for your conduct even though it placed you at jeopardy of losing your own liberty.” She said that the court would not want to “discourage other like minded people to act in the manner you have.”

    The man was ordered to serve only one month in prison and pay a $400 fine.

    Even within the prison system, child molesters and pornographers are held in particular disdain by other criminals. Sometimes, they are assigned to separate cells lest they be beaten by other inmates.