Free platform.

Humankind’s worst things and behaviors may be exhibited on the Internet, and it may let it go just because is a free-use platform. We are talking about terrible content that infiltrates through the web that does not make it up for the damage it causes or the intentions behind its publication. Also, the organisms that must be regulating this problem act passively, resulting in letting the amount of child pornography content increase each year.

The investigation holds that there are, approximately, 45 million videos and pictures of girls and boys being sexually abused. At least, 10 thousand pages on policial reports and legal documents that show technology and its developers do not have the tools required to stop this kind of content’s proliferation, without giving it the same treatment that is applied to hate-speech-based messages or terrorist propaganda.

When it comes to this kind of content’s presence and the way the models used by pedophiles to transfer the information safely escalates, institutions like the National Center for Disappeared and Exploited Children advise that the number of reports exceeds the response capacity that the involved organizations and the forces of law have. They cannot make effective moves against this problem.

Since 1998, when there were 3,000 cases of child abuse reported, the amount has been increasing, year after year, until 2018, when there were 18,4 million cases of child abuse-related content reported.

The problem is that the victims fear of being recognized by their photos or videos on the Internet, after having their lives shattered by the abuse perpetrated by relatives or strangers.

Thinking about this issue, there is a victim that was filmed while being abused by its father when the attacked one was 11 years old. It does not matter how hard this person tries to feel good and overcome that disgrace, the footage keeps the abuse breathing 20 years later and it will make it harder to forget it.

How the material get to the web

The reported material has a regular flow after being uploaded to the web. Once identified, it is reported by other users or the companies that provide Internet services. After this, the whole problem is in the law’s hands. Legal actions are taken after the specialist review the material. The most used platforms for child-abuse-related material are:

• FTP
• E-Mail
• P2P
• Chatrooms
• Instant messenger
• Forum
• Gaming
• SMS
• Cell phone
• Tor
• URL

The top three countries with the largest child pornography traffic is conformed by:

1. India
2. Indonesia
3. Thailand

The top five is completed if we add Mexico and Bangladesh —positions 4 and 5 respectively— to that list. After these countries, we find the United States and Brazil with the highest number of reports related to their population.

The investigation also revealed that there are groups online dedicated to share images of younger kids and extreme abuse forms through encryption technologies and the dark web: the place on the Internet where everything is illicit and where information about how to commit the crimes, how to record the abuse, and how to share the images taken from the act, is given to pedophiles around the world.

These traffickers are at the forefront of technology to distribute the child-exploitation materials; they cover their fingerprints by connecting to private hidden virtual networks that allow them to

• Cover their locations.
• Deploy encryption techniques.
• Hide messages.
• Share on the dark web.

Social networks —like Facebook— and search engines —like Google— improved their platforms’ vigilancy, but they are required to report only when the child abuse images are discovered. The procedures may take several months, and sometimes they only answer to say that there is not a record, even when it is about reports that already started the legal process.

The social network Facebook announced its plans to cipher Messenger in March, considering that the last year, it was responsible for almost 12 out of the 18,4 million global reports related to child sexual abuse material.

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More protection for children.

Underage people are the most vulnerable group when it comes to human trafficking in Central America, and this is something people do not talk about, although it is considered the third most profitable illicit business in the world. According to experts, human trafficking needs more social awareness to eradicate it.

Also, children are the ones that do not report this kind of acts, this is the reason why some organizations have taken the lead to express what is happening. Lourdes Gutiérrez, UNODC’s coordinator, explained that human trafficking may occur in these scenarios:

• Within the family.
• Parents may exploit the children.
• Organized crime networks.

The most common form of human trafficking is sexual exploitation. However, there are some others among these:

• Working exploitation.
• Mendicancy.
• Illicit organ extraction.
• Sexual tourism.

The UNODC created the Blue Heart campaign trying to create awareness about human trafficking crimes in the region. Crimes where most of the victims are women and girls.

Honduras became part of the Blue Heart.

Honduras’ sign-up in the UNODC’s campaign is aiming to expose human trafficking crimes in all the possible ways and characteristics, as well as creating awareness on different sectors to achieve real consciousness about this crime.

During Honduras’ sing-up, Karla Cuevas, Minister of Human Rights in the country, was present. She declared that human trafficking is one of the most severe human rights violations and it is considered the new slavery, in the XXI century.

Honduras has rescued at least 194 victims of human trafficking during this year, according to the Interinstitutional Comision Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking’s report.

Blue Heart is a campaign created in 2008 —it means the victims’ desolation, the traffickers’ cold heart, and the United Nations’ color—, and its main objective is to prevent this crime, besides encouraging institutions and civil society, so they can denounce, inform, and sensibilize on this scourge, considered the third most profitable illicit business in the world.

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The «Caldo de Pollo (Chicken Stock)» and the «Club De Los Pingüinos (Pengüins’ Club or Club Pengüins)».

During her mission on infiltrating on the Internet to find out how pedophiles get child pornography, she discovered some disturbing things:

There is a lot of communities on the web that distributes this kind of material. Also, she spotted the keywords that pedophiles use to search for this kind of content on the web:

• Caldo de Pollo (Chicken Stock).
• Club Pengüin.

The reason why they use these combinations of words is that their initials are CP, the same initials on Children Pornography, and it might be used to refer to Child Pornography.

When this woman searched these terms on Google, she found cooking recipes within the top results. However, the deeper she went, she found WhatsApp groups that offered «tasty Caldo de Pollo (Chicken Stock)» packs.

She could not get in those groups to see if they were trafficking that kind of material, but as she kept investigating, she noticed that the same keywords were used to refer or search children pornography in some other social networks.

This Twitter thread had one response from another user that did his research, following this woman’s idea. He found a Telegram chat group, he got in covered under a 15-years-old teenager profile. Immediately, a man sent him child pornography.

This thread kept getting popular with more comments. Some people felt motivated to research on their own and share their experiences.

The Pedophile’s handbook.

The Internet has become the biggest place where pedophiles exchange child pornography through social networks —as mentioned before— and they trade it on the dark web, where multiple illicit acts are practiced, things like handbooks to perform these horrible things.

For example, there is the case of a Brazilian doctor accused of having child pornography. When the investigation started, within the doctor’s digital data, they found a document that might be described as a pedophiles’ handbook. The document shows:

• How to approach children.
• Which are the kids that are most likely not to be discovered and executing sexual aggressions.
• Which are the best victims.
• How to start talking with kids.

The handbook includes detailed information on how to have a sexual encounter with a child, described with explicit illustrations. The book also emphasizes the fact that having sex with a child is not something repulsive.

This and some other handbooks are part of a giant and millionaire network that has a lot of people involved that do not suffer from this pathology, but they use child pornography as their income source.

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Prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse

The directors of the Guardianes organization, specialized in prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse, offered an interview to follow up on the investigation of the aggression case against two girls inside the bathrooms of an elementary school in Culiacán.

This organization worked some years ago in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, in almost fifty elementary schools, giving workshops to children, teachers, and parents, which allowed the organization to confirm that there is a great need to educate about sexual violence and share the appropriate information.

The Guardianes general director considers that it is necessary to clarify some terms when talking about sexual violence. For example, not reducing the importance of the matter by calling it abuse, harassment —or even— improper practice.

It is important to believe children when they report any type of abuse. Remember that their brain is in the development stage and, therefore, sometimes they cannot clearly distinguish the difference between reality and something they just observed. However, a child lying in matters of sexual abuse is not common at all.

Secondly, the child must be safe from the alleged aggressor, execute the complaint and look for specialized help to care for the victim. It is advisable to tell the victim that he was very brave when talking about what happened to him.

In the case of Culiacán, two girls were assaulted in an elementary school bathroom by an unknown man who entered the campus without being seen. The criminal escaped. The information was known because the mother of one of the girls shared it with the media and the authorities after the incident since she did not receive a response from the institution’s management.

The school’s principal considered that the fact was not a crime because the man did not touch the intimate parts of the girls, so she pointed out that the case was not going to be followed up.

Sexual violence

Sexual violence can occur with or without physical contact. According to experts, any erotic or lascivious contact with an underage person is considered child sexual violence.

The cases of grooming  —in which an adult pretends to be a child to get their attention, asking them to pose, observe pornography or scenes of sexual content— are also sexual violence without physical contact. This type of approach usually happens through social networks.

To avoid cases like the one that occurred in Culiacán, schools must be prepared to prevent abuse towards their students.

In order for victims to heal, it is crucial to handle these cases properly. This guarantees that these aggressions will not be repeated. The most important thing is to emphasize that these accusations cannot be ignored, and the complaint must proceed in every case.

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How to catch a pedophile

The alarm on three alleged pedophiles in Colombia was given by the United States Immigration and Customs Agency, which has agents dedicated exclusively to the detection of crimes against children.

In the suspects’ records, an Internet load of 287 incriminating files, including images and videos, of the explicit sexual content of children was found. The alert arrived in Colombia and the investigators of the Dijín (National Police of Colombia) started to work. They analyzed the information, made the detection in the neighborhoods and, finally, the arrests.

In the corresponding raids, 25 devices were found —including computers, phones, hard drives, and memories— with hundreds of explicit images showing scenes of child abuse, even under 10 years. In total, 2,900 files that reported the crime were detected.

Although the researchers determined that the detainees are consumers of child pornography. They also indicated that going from the attraction to that kind of material to the children’s physical abuse is very simple.

Kit to avoid pedophiles in the web

The PaPaz Network together with the ICBF created an online toolkit so that parents are aware and can prevent and manage the risk of child and teenage sexual abuse in the digital space.

The guide extends from the definition of online sexual abuse to the different kinds of abusers that can be found on the Internet and how they act with children. The guide also shows different ways to recognize them.

Finally, it offers examples of the conversations that abusers can engage with children to manipulate and guide them towards what they want, including using extortion for kids to submit to abuse. One of the most used trends is known as Grooming, or network seduction, a process of which four phases are generally recognized:

• Hitch
• Fidelity
• Seduction
• Harassment

Although not all pedophiles behave the same, these specific abusers take advantage of the curiosity that naturally guides children and teenagers to know everything, both in love relationships and those of a sexual nature. They gain their trust and open up to talk about these issues with these people, to the point of getting them isolated.

Maintaining communication with children and control with a good guide of what they review on the Internet will help us to protect them from these online predators.

The post How child pornography consumers are detected in Colombia first appeared on Counter Pedophilia Investigative Unit - Official Site.

God’s Messenger on the Bench of the Accused

Image taken from the Facebook official agency Infonort Rosarito

The Church of the Light of World is one of the biggest evangelic churches in Mexico. It is in 58 countries and reunites, around, five million parishioners.

Since the year he became president, 2014, after the death of his father, Naason Joaquin kept a low profile until two events happened that put him on the public opinion.

After a controversial concert in his honor in the Palace of Beautiful Arts of Mexico, he was arrested in Los Angeles, California, on June 4th and accused of 26 charges of child pornography, child abuse, and human trafficking.

California’s District Attorney, Xavier Becerra, announced his capture, and said: “Crimes such as these ones have no place in our society. Period.” The prosecution indicates that between 2015 and 2018, Garcia and some accomplices committed sexual abuses, which lead to face charges of:

• Alleged human trafficking;
• production of child pornography;
• coerced rapping of a minor, among other 26 charges.

“Joaquin Garcia and his accomplices allegedly coerced their victims into performing sexual intercourse by telling them that refusing to any of their whishes or the ‘Messenger’s’ whishes would go against the will of God”, added the Prosecution.

Light of the World

Image taken from the Facebook official page of the agency Infonort Rosarito

The biggest Evangelic church of Mexico has a new leader since 2014, following the death of Naason Garcia’s father, Samuel Joaquin Flores, thus making him a third-generation leader of this congregation.

The Church of the Light of the World was created by an ex combatant of the Mexican Revolution, Eusebio Joaquin Gonzalez, grandfather of the accused, who, in 1926, had an epiphany to restore the church created by Jesus Christ.

The Guadalajara-based church set the basis to what is known nowadays as Hermosa Provincia colony, the congregation’s main headquarters. From that moment on, and together with “Aaron”, the church mixed Hebrew religious traditions, New and Old Testament, Catholic Church, and elements of other Evangelic congregation, and claimed to be the true church founded by Jesus Christ.

It is not the first time Naason is accused of sexual abuse. On his early years there were rumors of him preparing young girls to provide sexual pleasure; he was accused of doing so.

His right for a bail was denied, stating that it must not be considered a declaration of guiltiness. In addition, a/v and photographic evidence of child pornography were found on the smart phones of the spiritual leader.

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Mexico against the penal and civil justice’s ineffectiveness,

Since 20 years ago, Tlaxcala is considered the entity with the highest incidence in pederasty and child traffic, followed by Querétaro and Chihuahua. This is proof of the ineffectiveness that rules the civil and penal justice system on theses cases.

The director of the IMSS’s Century XXI Medic Center’s Pediatric Hospital, Javier Enrique López Aguilar, highlighted during his presentation that reinforcing the children’s sexual education is a number one priority, according to the different growth stages of the child. This will provide them the tools to identify risks and sexual violence behaviors against them.

He spoke about the importance of opening safe, trustworthy, reachable, and anonymous-based, communication paths; as well as the need of having shared responsibility on the actions taken by the authorities and the judicial instances related to the protection of children.

Another issue was related to social networks. Latin America’s most popular network’s security and users’ well-being area’s leader, María Cristina Capelo, exposed what are the steps taken by the authorities and specialized instances when it comes to underage users’ protection, worldwide.

The zero-tolerance with general, and especially with children, sexual abuse is shown in the most advanced technology used to remove content and go directly against the people that create fake profiles or groups that debate about the ways to avoid the existant policies against sexual violence and child pornography.

The social network works together with the Mexican specialized authorities on the security matter. They are developing a prevention network to act faster and detect fake accounts that encourage these kinds of crimes.

Most of the victims of child sexual abuse are girls.

According to a child abuse-related study at the National University of Luján, there is a tendency of five girls per each boy being abused, boys only represent 17% of these cases. Also, the aggressors are males that are directly related to the victims’ family environment.

This investigation was carried out reviewing and analyzing legal files in family tribunals, working on three profiles focused on people involved in child sexual abuse cases:

• The victim of abuse is a kid.
• The aggressor is an adult.
• The people that listen to the child’s story about the abuse.

The investigation, known as Childhood and necessities. Child Sexual Abuse (CSA), started in 2016 at the National University of Luján’s Social Sciences Department. It helps to demystify this cloudy topic for society and it also provides professionals from different disciplines the tools to work on this field.

The investigation’s main objective is to characterize this group of people that have been victims of abuse concerning how old are they, how many boys, how many girls, and things about the abuser, trying to understand why do they end up being victims, who listen to them and how do they react to what the children say.

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Horrifying notebooks.

Although the defense holds that the notebooks register only fantasies, but they do no confess any crime, the author of these diaries -a 68-year-old surgeon from Jonzac city, in the New Aquitaine region-, will be judged for the raping and assault of four children. But the number of victims could be a lot higher.

The first accusation was made in 2017 by a 6-year-old girl. She told her father that this man had shown his sex in front of her. At that moment, the surgeon was suspended from medical consultations. The reason was the diffusion of child pornography images.

When the authorities investigated, they discovered that the doctor had sexually abused the girl in front of her 2-year-old brother. When they searched the medic’s house, they found:

• Sexual toys.
• Pictures of the naked suspect.
• Wigs.
• Dolls.
• Notebooks with drawings and texts that describe pedophile acts.

With the information in the notebooks, the authorities must contact every one of the people that are described in the diary and verify if the events narrated are true or not. At the moment the doctor will be judged for aggression and raping of the complaining girl, as well as two of his nephews and a fourth victim.

According to the lawyer that represents the little girl, the events described by the other three victims were registered in the notebooks. It is presumed that part of the things described in the surgeon’s notebooks happened, and this lawyer’s statement supports that idea.

It is estimated that more than 250 girls and boys were assaulted during the years. The notebooks lead to people that currently might not even remember what could have happened. The kids treated in the hospitals where this surgeon was working were vulnerable targets and were completely defenseless after the surgeries, while they were on their recovery stage.

The things described in the surgeon’s texts are aberrant. The doctor admitted that his behavior was inappropriate, but he claims that he never abused any child and his texts are fiction.

A pedophile’s mind’s radiograph.

It is important to understand that pedophiles that are used to commit these aggressions are socially accepted people. They are careful with careful and attentive to children. When people think about someone with this pathology, this described profile is usually the opposite of what they imagine.

One disturbing fact is that it has been demonstrated that 80% of child abuse occurs within the family members, the fathers and stepfathers are commonly the aggressors, but anyone close enough to the family could be also an aggressor.

Recently, in Argentina, the case of a pediatrician was known. The medic used his position to abuse his little patients. Besides, he formed a pedophilia network. More than 270 child pornography videos were found in his archives.

The important thing is to stop watching these people as monsters and start accepting what they are: People that surround us, that are close and have a respectable position in society. But this position is their main tool to commit these assaults.

Pedophiles always use arguments that prevent them from feeling guiltiness, and they trespass the criminal offenses -that they recognize as inappropriate- against children’s responsibility.

This is the reason why professionals suggest to provide the little ones the tools they need to stop being vulnerable to pedophiles. It is also important that they are able to recognize and communicate any inappropriate act.

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Wave of Law Suits

With the new Law of Victims of Child Abuse in New York, a wave of law suits is expected to happen; the state has prepared itself to receive more than a thousand. That is why it has appointed 45 judges to exclusively handle the cases related to this law. It was approved early this year, but it was implemented in August.

On the first day the law came into force, at first hour, at least 85 people filed law suits against the Catholic Church, said New York Supreme Court. In most cases, victims presented their accusations against their abusers and those who covered them.

After a year has passed, in what is known as retrospective window, victims will be able to suit alleged abusers before a judge. This rises the age gap because the victim could file the law suit until he or she if 55 years old, previously age was until 23.

Likewise, prosecutors could present charges that can lead to prison before a jury until the victim is 28 years old, which raises the limit from 23 years olds, as it was established until now.

New York joined a dozen other states that ask for an expansion on the age limit, obtaining an increase on the statutes of limitation regarding filing law suits for this crime. Now it offers the possibility to go to court until the age of 55.

By 2003, the retrospective window in California managed to promote over a thousand trails, most of them against the Catholic Church, which meant the first step for San Diego Diocese to file for bankruptcy protection. The estimation is the in New York it can go over the amount of trails presented by the other states.

In the USA, there have been accusations against religious institutions, elite private schools, celebrities, movie producers, and business tycoons, like the recently deceased Jeffrey Epstein, accused of sex trafficking. He allegedly hanged himself in his cell, in Manhattan.

A Desire for Justice

Retrospective window gives the chance to many people to satisfy their desire for justice and, at the same time, balance the pain that might resurface when they have to relive the abuse in court.

Many victims thought they would never tell their story. Like Alessandra Biaggi, democratic senator for Bronx and main figure regarding the law, and senator Yuh-Line Niou, from the same party, and precur

sor of this initiative due to her experience with sexual abuse when she was underage.

The law firm, Weitz & Luxenberg, announced they will present more than 400 cases in the following weeks against different organizations from New York. The firm also said they represent more than 1200 alleged victims of child sexual abuse around the country. The accusers go from teenagers to elders of 90 years old.

Also, lawyers have set into motion a wide net while researching for their cases, including journals, TV shows, and Google with ad services.

Over the last year, laws in almost 40 states presented proposal to expand the limitation statute. The new laws were adopted in 18 states and the District of Columbia. New Jersey was one of those states, also adopting a law which includes a retrospective window said to be in effect later this year.

For some, the Law for Victims of Child abuse, which offers this window or retrospective or justice, will help many to face their past and reach a conclusion.

The post Wave of Child-Abuse Lawsuits Strike New York Again first appeared on Counter Pedophilia Investigative Unit - Official Site.

Being Precocious on Social Media

Early sexualization of teenagers and the superficiality of sex in social media have generated this raging display from the minors.

A society where children associate beauty with a sexual element can lead teenagers of 12 or 13 years of age to an early sexualization, and be perceived as sexual objects; especially because all they want is to be like the adults and be part of their world.

From early 2018, a great number of sexual exploitation from minors was detected in social media in Spain. It was proved that the material came from the said minors.

Nowadays, children from the age of eight show complete use of YouTube, even knowing how to upload videos on the platform, and which pose will give them more likes.

Pedophiles on the Net

Spanish police found out that 110 minors age 13 had produced the material and that they shared it on social networks like YouTube and Twitter, to name a few. In some cases, children identified during the operation said that they were contacted by adults who asked for this kind of material in exchange for various things.

Some parents do not know about these videos or are aware they children have accounts on social networks. Children under the age of 14 cannot open an account on YouTube, making parents responsible for their channel.

It is important that parents supervise the material their children post and that know who they kids are interacting with since there is a new type of crime: grooming. Children may think they are talking with another child when, in actuality, they are talking to an adult who wants to earn their trust so the children pose or produce highly sexualize content.

Social networks change and evolve constantly and, sadly, they can host all kinds of pedophiles waiting to prey on children.

The Innocent Playlist Used by Pedophiles

Not only children producing these videos are in danger, but parents as well. They should filter the audiovisual information posted by their children. This is because many of the videos posted on social media –including material with naked or a semi naked child between ages two and five – can expose their own sons to pedophiles without even realizing it.

Spanish authorities have found lists of videos from innocent minors taken out of context by a pedophile who then changes the original name of the video for a sexualize one.

Social network, YouTube, has implemented measures to avoid sexualized videos from minors.

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