
Massive child porn site is hiding in plain sight - yread
https://sijmen.ruwhof.net/weblog/1782-massive-child-porn-site-is-hiding-in-plain-sight-and-the-owners-behind-it
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sillysaurus3
So, in an effort to talk about controversial subjects in a substantive way,
this seems like a pretty good litmus test to figure out whether I fit in here.
I've been deciding whether to stay or leave. Here's a topic.

There are a few subreddits on /r/all which you can't help but notice are
filled with partly, shall we say, not strictly legal porn. And I didn't go out
of my way to find these. Reddit lobbed them at me because that's what /r/all
does, and if I want to see /r/all (and not /r/popular, which filters out
various subreddits that happen not to fit their "popularity" criteria) then
that's what I get.

I really don't want to provide links for obvious reasons. I thought about it.
But that seems stretching this. Suffice to say, there exists some integer N
where N is less than 18, despite claims to the contrary.

What should be done, if anything? These are consensual pictures, posted by
young adults who understand the implications of what they're doing. They do
not need protection.

The other way to look at it is that they're kids who really don't know what
they're getting themselves into.

I don't know how to feel. So, there you go.

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evincarofautumn
It’s…a hard problem. I think it’s normal and natural for young people to
explore their bodies & sexuality and share that experience with each other.
It’s fraught on all sides with problems, though—when it gets shared with the
_world_ , either by choice or by betrayal; when the people involved are very
young or even prepubescent; when adults use their power and maturity to
exploit them; and so on.

I started having sex when I was 14, after waiting for a long time with the
same partner, and I feel like I personally was mature enough to handle it
responsibly. That doesn’t mean all 14-year-olds should be doing that. And the
concept of consent here, doing normal activities like having sex and sharing
images of yourself, is murky—I did things that were _illegal_ , but (I feel)
neither wrong nor harmful.

Maybe the law just needs to be more adaptable somehow. But I feel like there’s
always going to be tension between expressing yourself and being protected
from exploitation.

~~~
sillysaurus3
Apparently in Germany the age of consent is 14, and if someone over 21
interacts with someone near 14, a hearing can be convened to determine whether
this was justified.

I heard this secondhand on Reddit, so I have no idea whether it's true,
effective, or what the implications would be. But it seemed like a sensible
and tidy system, if one existed. (EDIT: indeed,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_Europe#Germ...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_consent_in_Europe#Germany))

I was similarly active at around 14, and it didn't really affect me much. But
on the other hand, that's only a few years after it's even possible, so it's
hard to grok the gravity of it. Especially at that age.

You're right – it's simply hard to figure out how much protection, and where,
should be applied.

~~~
mschuster91
> I heard this secondhand on Reddit, so I have no idea whether it's true,
> effective, or what the implications would be.

as a German, yes this is correct. Additionally: as long as both involved are
>14, the parent(s) have to file a complaint, which is the reason why these
cases are very rare - even for e.g. 13/15 combination (which would be illegal)
I don't know any case without having to resort to Google.

Both courts and the general public treat the entire matter responsibly,
although the latter has shifted a bit, if one involved party is a refugee -
that sends the German alt-right into a frenzy every time there is any hint of
suspicion. But still, it's far, far away from what hits HN/Reddit every couple
of months from the US.

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jamestimmins
Is it naive to be somewhat uncomfortable with the doxxing of the sites owners?

It certainly appears that they are aware of/complicit with what is going on,
but there's also a possibility that some of those folks aren't actually
involved, and that someone else attached their emails in an attempt to damage
their reputation. That second option is admittedly unlikely, but law
enforcement agencies have the resources and access to determine who really is
involved and to what extent, and to prosecute accordingly. The court of public
opinion is rarely this nuanced.

Otherwise this looks like solid research. I'm surprised that it didn't appear
that the author had reached out to Google to have the site de-indexed.

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newscracker
It's uncomfortable to see such posts, wonder if they belong here and should be
discussed. My knee jerk reaction on seeing the headline was that this didn't
belong here. After skimming the article and getting a sense of the significant
effort put in by the author, I've changed my mind. The people who're already
into such things most likely have the inclination, time and knowledge to get
what they're looking for — with or without this article. Of course, there may
be cases where such a post may kindle someone to get into such things, but the
benefits of making this information available widely, IMO, far outweigh such
risks.

I usually keep telling people not to share photos online, and especially not
of their (or others') kids. Most people don't know or understand who can see
what they're sharing and how things could possibly leak out. This
investigative article is a tool for me to reinforce this message in my
circles. For that, I thank the author.

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mschuster91
Interesting how common the pattern of "reusing identities" pops up in
investigations... this was the same stuff that e.g. broke the opsec of Silk
Road.

Re-using email addresses for a domain with ... beyond questionable material
and for e.g. a real-name Facebook account just stinks of incompetence.

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gravypod
Fantastic write up. If the author is here, how did you keep track of this sort
of graph-based information while working on this? Did you just keep a notepad?

Despite this write up being extremely depressing I had a laugh at the
following line from the article:

> Interpol didn’t want to comment on the site and Europol says they don’t work
> with the Russians.

Aaah politics.

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QAPereo
Hopefully the FBI already has their hooks in this, and uses it to work up the
chain. Along with incredibly graphic violence, this has been the darkest part
of the internet since day 1.

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nkkollaw
I don't see anything weird when I search for those keywords (from Poland, in
English).

~~~
xiao-wei
Same here (searching with /ncr):
[https://i.imgur.com/V0E3uGx.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/V0E3uGx.jpg)

Maybe Google already deindexed the site? Or maybe OP's results are based on
his search history?

~~~
mschuster91
For me, with personalized account, and query "img src" against Google DE: top3
for the TLD after html.com and selfhtml, and top8 for a t.co link to the site
which I did not dare click.

For what its worth, I have never tried to interact with CP in any way, or have
heard of this site before today, so I'd assume Google has no reason to up-rank
this site for me based on browser history.

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ogdoad
That this thread was flagged demonstrates our knee-jerk bias on such subjects.

