In the fall of 2019, The New York Times reported a record 45 million online photos and videos of CP, with the problem growing exponentially.
Since the Times article came out, some police departments have spent money trying to update their technology departments in hopes of curbing the problem, but it has not been effective. The problem is growing worse. Is it because the strategy continues to be going after the viewers/possessors instead of channeling money into taking the pictures down? Does the United States not have IT geniuses capable of taking on this task?
Concerning CP, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said, “There’s a finite number of people that deal in this horrific stuff. It’s not a bottomless well. It can be stopped and it could be stopped rather easily by our tech giants who employ tech geniuses.”
But some tech geniuses said because there are so many different platforms and tricks…they don’t expect it to go away anytime soon.
Retired U.S. Secret Service Agent Gus Dimitrelos worked in the field for 25 years and said we have not even put a dent in the problem. “It’s not going anywhere and it’s getting worse because the ability to store data online has grown exponentially just in the past four years.”
It has been said by some in law enforcement that if every viewer/possessor of CP could be found and put in prison, we do not have the prison space to house everyone – not even close.
So, this problem has been going on for decades. Not only has there been no improvement in the situation, but it is getting worse. Isn’t it time to try a different approach? Someone once told me that it is just too easy to click on a mouse. Then take down the pictures so that there is nothing to click on.
A new tv show called Undercover underage is coming out where they dress up an older woman to look and act as an underaged girl and entrapment men on camera for the series to expose them to the entire World.
Look it up, called undercover underage.
On a channel called Investigation Discovery. I do not have cable but they have been advertising the show online and on tv heavily.
@CherokeeJack
I also don’t have cable, but I do have multiple streaming services. However…this upcoming show sounds like smut not worthy of my eyes.
mb
Yes and they are creating crimes that have yet to occur IE: Entrapment. Here is the worst part, even if no charges are filed, they are going show all these peoples faces, addresses and everything for the World to see so that you will have to move to the desert to be left alone.
A BUNCH OF SICK FCKS WHO PRODUCE THAT TV GARBAGE!
REALLY SICK PEOPLE!
…WE SHALL SEE LONG THIS LASTS……I WOULD GUESS, NOT FOR LONG!
HOPE THEY HAVE A BIG WIDE REAR-VIEW MIRROR
The government never had the manpower (or even the power) to distribute 45 million child sexual abuse images to the public. Nor do they have the manpower to locate it all.
I feel like I shouldn’t even have to point that out.
It’s true that government agents have distributed this material. Just as it’s true that convicted sex offenders have engaged in serial abuse and even kidnapping. But neither of those types of anecdotes are a good basis for public policy, are they?
If I’m wrong, and we have solid evidence that the government is in fact behind the child pornography problem, then there is a path to the solution: present the evidence to your elected representative, so they can launch an investigation.
Because if there’s anything legislators love to do, it’s beat up publicly on executive-branch agencies. They love to do that, AND they (as much as we) hate child pornography. As do their constituents, so this will be their chance to be a hero, attract campaign donations, and win re-election.
What would stymy a lawmaker from investigating government child pornography? The prospect of losing donations from Big Child Pornography? Don’t be silly. They would only be reluctant if they perceive that the evidence is not credible and will lead to a dead end where they look foolish. OR, perhaps such investigations have already been done, and that’s how we know about this and why we continue to blame the government.
Anyone want to take this on? Alternatively, we could just throw up our hands, declare that the government will always be behind everything bad, and give up on our public safety mission.
I definitely agree with you on everything you said. Ironically I said almost the samething you are said in another post. Except my post was censored by FAC. However, my post pointed fingers a specific state reps. Which just so happened that most of those political figures belonged to a certain political party. Judging by you post, I’m gathering that you can conclude the political figures that I was referring to
Expecting big tech to help with this is like as asking the auto industry to help prevent drunk driving…oh, wait, Congress has just done that for the auto industry: Congress mandates anti-drunk driving technology for cars https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/10/congress-mandates-anti-drunk-driving-technology-for-cars/
Therefore, big tech can help if they want through legal terms of service but make sure they do it as the war on drugs was supposed to do…go after both the source and the user…if they don’t want Congress to get involved.
I hope FAC will publish this comment. I try to post stuff for everyone to take notice of and some never get posted. I think this is important.
I don’t always agree with Lauren Chen (a YouTuber I follow) and I don’t agree with some of what she says here. Why? Because she’s talking out of both sides of her mouth. While acknowledging that there are people in this world with mental illness, she also says she doesn’t care how someone with pedophilia feels.
But she is not the main focus of my reason for posting this for you guys. The video she is responding to is very detrimental to our cause. People, like the 2 men in the video she is responding to, are going to make it so that the registry remains as is. Someone on the left needs to tell others on the left to cut it out with this crap!
https://youtu.be/81DAYPg-cLc
Huh?valid question was itnot?
Remember who started the so called “Dark Web” …. Our wonderful government 🤔
I was wondering why, that in FL, there are very few women per capita of the registry..maybe 1 in 100, whereas like in GA and NC there seem to be 1 in every 30 or so…It may a larger difference than that even. Why would that be, if true? (FAC NOTE: CITATION NEEDED)
Maybe Sheriff judd knows some one on those pictures look at his words easier to click on mouse for anything then take things down prison are running out of room think stop doing your internet sex sting
Of course, I don’t see him complaining about the role the FBI and ICAC has in distributing said material…. (FAC NOTE: CITATION NEEDED)
Besides, CP lets him parade himself to reporters patting himself on the back for his stupid stings while murder, armed robbery and drugs run rampant through Polk County.
I don’t know about ICAC, but law enforcement at all levels has been unlawfully involved in CP distribution for decades.
While in federal prison, my roommate researched the subject thoroughly. His well written 80-page report contains all of the references to federal case law (over 200 case citations) that one would need to verify the assertion that historically LE may very well be the single largest distributor of CP. It is current as of 2017 and will more than fill the citation gap you mentioned.
FAC, I scanned his report with OCR, cleaned it up in Word and made it available as a PDF if you are interested. I could supply it in Word for those who want to cut and paste from it. It would be a very informative addition to your resources section. Just let me know where to send it.
Below is the report’s abstract.
“In its zeal to arrest those who violate the sexual exploitation of minors statutes, the government has established a decades long pattern of violating those same statutes. This document discusses statutory history, how these laws apply specifically and generally to law officials, and through examination of published case law establishes the clear violation by law officials. Also covered are the Constitutional and legal issues which arise from this behavior, and the available remedies which the court can utilize to redress the official misconduct. Additionally, legal harmless investigative methods occasionally used by law officials are covered, which methods moot the need for the use of illegitimate methods. Finally, foreign commerce and Internet specific issues are discussed and the implications of the government’s use of these facilities.”
Veritas.
Why cares what Shady Grady thinks? He should have been imprisoned and kicked out of office years ago.
#1: What office is Grady Judd running for now??? Or is his position as “sheriff” (in his county) an elected position and this is simply part of the incumbent’s ongoing campaign for reelection?
#2: But, of course, the problem of illegal images online is not a priority and has not been resolved….. and with good reason:
A: There is no public photo-op serving as an incentive for these fame-seeking LEOs to advance that effort. And…
B: LEO’S score lots of points for running online sex offender entrapment schemes and for the “performance art” perp walks or newspaper photo grid displays of those arrested.
Again, there’s no glory associated with simply or routinely removing online illegal images, so there is zero incentive to do so. I would guess that the LEOs’ performance evaluations are based on number of prosecutable arrests, not on doing routine, boring tasks, so why waste time on such things?
Facebook and Twitter are exclusively social media companies (with a few sub brands like Portal and Oculus) while Apple tailors its products towards the user. I’d expect Samsung, Intel, AMD, and Microsoft to have very little reports, too.
Common sense dictates that as technology advances, the means to make things advances, too. I remember how amazing Internet radio was when it first came out, and now little churches in the middle of nowhere can live stream both audio and video of their services regularly on Facebook/YouTube using nothing more than a cell phone.
The number of phone scammers has gone up, drug trafficking is easier than ever, getting hacked is a regular worry, so of course, CP production has increased.
But they’d use the same tired method to get rid of CP as they did with the “War on Drugs.” How’s that working out? I guess if it didn’t work the previous 30-50 years, try the same failed method on something else??
The reason they don’t target sites specifically, is because they prefer the easy route. Besides, the government and law enforcement are some of the biggest contributors to the web availability for CP. It’s how they catch the low hanging fruit. I understand the reason for punishment for possession and distribution, but it needs be genuine possession and distribution, and not accidental. Possession laws are too gray, and leads to convictions when true possession wasn’t warranted. I mean, if someone were to plant drugs in your possession without you noticing, and you were caught with those drugs, than you could be defined as in possession despite not knowing. This could lead to you being charged and possibly convicted. The burden of proof has shifted to the defense decades ago, and that is not how the law is written to work.
Another question ought to be asked … why is there so much effort in going after viewers/possessors of CP than going after the providers of CP? These are the idiots who make the smut and, as the old saying goes – cut off the head of the snake and the snake dies – they should be the ones law enforcement should go after. The smut is gross and intolerable and my guess is that the reason big tech doesn’t want to touch it is there’s money to be made – money is, after all, the root of all evil!!
Another thing to point out about the tech giants, which the sheriff is right about, why can’t they stop the stuff? If China and North Korea can block everything coming in from the U.S.A. via the internet – and even porn – why can’t we, and “big tech”, do the same??
Just some thoughts is all ….
For production, Congress has set the mandatory minimum sentence at THREE TIMES that of receipt— specifically, 15 years, up to a maximum of 30 years per incident. That has given Federal prosecutors more than enough incentive to target producers, and they don’t pass up the opportunity. But that does not address what we do about the other 45 million out there.
Let’s set aside the myths about the government’s role in child pornography.
“It’s mostly distributed by the government,” “the government can simply eliminate the supply,” “the government treats producers more lightly than viewers,” “child pornography is usually just government entrapment.”
Please.
When we advocate for elimination of the registry, some of those willing to listen would like our constructive proposals for prevention, including prevention of child pornography. Do we know of a constructive, actionable proposal for doing this?
“Just take down the pictures” does not sound constructive, FAC. Are we just venting our frustration here? Who, specifically, has the technical know-how to take them down? How do we know?
Someone has already stated that there are algorithms that can take smut like CP down. The Chinese government does it as does North Korea and other countries. So yes, it isn’t impossible for our government to end CP period. But, as also been said, follow the money and you’ll find out who really benefits from distribution of CP. (it’s a long laundry list to say the least)
This guy seems to have an unnatural interest in CP…seems like someone should actually check Sheriff Grady Judd’s hard-drive. Might be quite a surprise (or not really) to many.
Seems that those who have an obsession about stopping something are usually doing so because they either are doing that thing OR want to be doing that thing. I am just saying…
There was a lead guy in charge of HSI’s (whatever investigated CP, sex trafficking, etc.) that himself had a whole slew of CP.
I do think the government is complicit in promoting those “Catch a Predator” style arrests and urging people to commit crimes. Other than using a few captured Dark Web sites as a honey pot, I don’t think they produce or share CP. I’ve seen sentences of producers getting 30+ years in prison.
It’s…amusing…how in one breath they’ll say that these images are forever, but then say that they’ll do everything they can to get rid of it as though busting all the downloaders on a P2P or TOR network somehow makes the slightest dent in the amount out there. CP no longer has a finite number like the drugs or contraband ivory, so giving out long harsh sentences to downloaders/possessors isn’t logical.
That is why I reject the “marketplace” analogy so often used by prosecutors. While commercial producers may have benefitted from some initial sale, once on the internet there is no feedback to the producer. Supply becomes essentially unlimited so there is no supply-demand dynamic. It certainly sounds nefarious for prosecutors to claim that possession contributes to the marketplace which encourages more production.
There are many good logical and moral arguments against CP, but market feedback is not one of them.
Veritas
Technology is past the point where it doesn’t even take human intervention. AI and recognition algorithms could easily scrub 99% of all CP from these platforms, if not more, if they so desired.
However, that is not going to get it off the dark web and seedier places and if it is encrypted, no software can tell what it is.
Good point Alan, and it is in those dark places where the real criminals are at. Aren’t those folks the ones we think about when we think of eliminating the evil of CP?
So True!!
In a sick but funny comparison, I put out a Craigslist ad under ‘Community’ offering to host people for thanksgiving dinner. I added that homeless, registrants, and LGBTQ+ persons were welcome.
My ad was flagged as inappropriate and removed.
So I ask you, if it’s easy enough for a single person to remove my offer of assistance, how hard could it be for all of us to remove child porn from social media sites?
Unfortunately, the smart people say ‘follow the money’.
The challenge is that most of these 45 million photos and videos are not on social media sites. When they are, thankfully, they tend to quickly get flagged.
Judd leads the Nation in his stings faking Adult Dating Websites and posting classified ads for young women and then having deputies pose as children. He is making RSOs out of men and women that otherwise would have no interest and then calls us all scumbags and worse. Polk County is still living in the deep south past and somehow this madman keeps getting re-elected. JEV True Confessions
Yeah I agree with you. Also I would like to point out something. in my personal opinion, there is something up with Shady Grady. I just seen on the news where one of his veteran deputies shot and killed a woman. The woman was 24ys old. She has 2 children.
In the situation the woman was experiencing some psychological break down and was armed with a shovel when the deputy arrived. She was known to the sheriff’s office for having a history of drug abuse and being bipolar. In my personal opinion why does a veteran deputy need to shoot-to-kill a woman armed with a shovel. He shot her FOUR times? Now I don’t know about the rest of you but my military training of both Peace keeping and combat missions along with deescalating a situation and the escalation use of lethal force training says something is not right with this Sheriff’s department. In this specific scenario alone. The officer could have tased her at any moment. Shot her in the arm that she was holding the shovel with, then shot her in the leg and not center mass right off rip. To me, Sheriff Shady Grady’s department seems to lack training. Something is not right. I have heard so much about Shady Grady and I don’t even live in or near Polk County. The family of this woman needs to sue the Sheriff’s department. I would if it was my daughter.
I said all that to say this. Yeah CP is a huge problem but taking down the pictures will not stop the root cause of the problem. It’s kinda like law enforcement intercepting the drug shipment before it makes it to its destination. The drug king pin is still out there making and distributing drugs. In this case the perpetrators are still out there making and distributing CP. Take down 1 picture and 1000 more pop up. Just like for the most part, the registry does not stop a sex crime from being committed. It’s a false sense of security is all it is.
This post was meant for Jacob. I guess I tapped the wrong reply button somehow.