Crimes of child sexual abuse online comprise a complex ecosystem which, from the underground, it generates profits that reach the 5 million dollars as a result of more than 100 thousand visitors daily. Added to this high demand there is the few minor penalties that the law applies in such cases.
Increased in demand, increase in victims
The most reputable computer security firm in the world, Kaspersky Lab, says that a single porn network generates about 5 million per month, product of attracting around 100 thousand visitors per day, under the veil of secrecy offered by the web.
Reports published by Spam Nation, Brian Krebs, monthly subscription sites known as Strawberry or Lolitas access, can come into costs of around $ 40. They do not only seek economic benefits; they also look to create exchange groups that have access to such material through these platforms:
Via conventional mail, using coded language to take care of identification
Sending encrypted mail, cloud service or through a USB files.
Ecosystems created to distribute child pornography online are composed by infrastructure known as BulletProf, shaped by networks or service providers hosting that by their geographic location or political conditions make it very difficult to trace or performance of any legal action. It is there where they are stored and from where the images are distributed.
There are payment systems processing anonymously, exclusively designed for operations related to this market to shield themselves from any kind of persecution by the authorities. The appearance of cryptocurrency is another factor that has facilitated financial transactions of these groups.
The architecture in the web to perform these operations translates into greater access and greater demand, which means that the number of victims. It is amazing how these webs are designed to not limit access but to make it as anonymously as possible, so their clients does not leave any kind of traces behind to eventually lead to them. Thousands of children registered in pictures and videos are victimized again and again, while the material go viral in transnational groups of pedophiles.
A slow and mild response
Cybercrimes of child pornography have increased and so has increased the urgency to hasten the time of research, generate prevention and knowledge of society, in addition to closing the loopholes that give a clear advantage to criminals. Most of the time what happens is that the authorities, government and such, does not have in their knowledge the proper notion of these crimes, to give them the weight they really deserve on the crime level and decide what punishment would be more apropiate.
All this support makes people charged with child pornography have no history, allowing them to receive easy sentences and return home immediately. Similarly, there are gray areas in many of the cases they have. Some lawyers consider that cybercrime of child pornography should be amended and generate discussions to promote a comprehensive reform of cybercrime figures.
Globally, security agencies, groups of cyber patrolling and other institutions of child protection work to deter, disrupt and investigate these practices. But it is a difficult process, as these pedophile networks reach millions of users who hide their crimes behind the use of encrypted technologies. It would also be useful to involve in this crusade to giants like Google and Facebook. With their help it would be fairly easy to find ways to track down most of these networks and even though it would be still difficult to shut them down, just finding them and start an ongoing tracking of their activities would mean a lot for the purpose of stopping these pedophile organizations.
