Over 80 Percent of Dark-Web Visits Relate to Pedophilia, Study Finds

Over 80 Percent of Dark-Web Visits Relate to Pedophilia

I wasn't sure what forum to put this in. Pedophilia is at the top of the list for some and it most certainly causes civil unrest. For those who don't know, the "dark" part of the internet consists of network hosts that cannot be reached by normal means. Some estimate that as little as .03 percent of the internet is actually searchable.

Amongst this void exists hard to find websites and secretive networks that use the internet as a conduit to conduct business anonymously. The term itself does sound quite nefarious, who would have known so much illegal activity takes place there? /sarcasm

Luckily there are people out there willing to investigate...

The mysterious corner of the Internet known as the Dark Web is designed to defy all attempts to identify its inhabitants. But one group of researchers has attempted to shed new light on what those users are doing under the cover of anonymity. Their findings indicate that an overwhelming majority of their traffic is driven by the Dark Web’s darkest activity: the sexual abuse of children.

The results came after a six month probe into the internets collection of Tor hidden services and websites which make up the majority of the Dark Web. Many people are unaware of what happens down there.

The study paints an ugly portrait of that Internet underground: drug forums and contraband markets are the largest single category of sites hidden under Tor’s protection, but traffic to them is dwarfed by visits to child abuse sites.

More than four out of five site visits were to online destinations with pedophilia content. The remaining hits were extremely small in comparison which consisted mainly of gambling, bitcoin activity, and anonymous whistleblowing.


Even more strange is that child abuse sites represent only about two percent of Tor hidden service websites. So eighty percent of traffic flows through only two percent of the void that is deep web. But, as with many studies, the data does not fill in all the blanks.

The study also found that the vast majority of Tor hidden services persist online for only a matter of days or weeks. Less than one in six of the hidden services that was online when Owen’s study began remained online at the end of it. Since the study only attempted to classify sites by content at the end of its six month probe, Tor director Roger Dingledine points out that it could over-represent child abuse sites that remained online longer than other types of sites.

What this means is that one six month period may not show the same results as another six month period due to the sporadic and inconsistent nature of the websites in question.

A quote from Gareth Owen who conducted the research got me thinking...

Before we did this study, it was certainly my view that the dark net is a good thing,” says Owen. “But it’s hampering the rights of children and creating a place where pedophiles can act with impunity.

Really? Must have been in denial or didn't bother researching. The dark web is not hampering the rights of children or purposefully creating a place for pedophiles can exchange material. It simply is a product of being anonymous and that freedom is very much worth fighting for.

Could this be a possible hit piece attempting to steer the ship towards a regulated internet? Nothing gets the point across like pedophilia. It might read like that for some but that does not excuse the information at hand. My heart bleeds unconditionally for these children. There lives will never be the same. With that said, shutting down or regulating the free exchange of information and ideas is not the answer.


As for the internet, can we come up with a way to take out the trash without taking out the entire room from which it came from? Can we remove the tumor while saving the host? What are your thoughts?

a reply to: eisegesis

That old chestnut eh? Nothing to do with the fact that TPTB also utilise the dark networks for there own nefarious purposes.

a reply to: eisegesis

The first time I tried the dark web it scared the hell out of me...it was slow and I had no idea why someone would want to use it...I went to a wiki page I found online and literally 90% of the page was things that were god awful...most being scams im sure. There was no hiding it either...just scroll down and pick your poison if you want.

With that I read an article about a month ago of this police department that made a virtual child to lure predators....I think they had 20,000 individual suspect IP's and had made like 100 arrests in 2 weeks. 20,000 in 2 weeks....

ill try to find the article.....

I personally feel the category needs to be split up. There is a difference between children and teenagers. For example the 18 year old hitting on a 16 year old. And with technology today the two 15 year olds sending nude pics back and forth to each other being classified as child porn. They need to rework the laws to be more specific to help get a better number and how big this stuff is.

When I lived in a different country it was not that odd to see a 15 yr old girl dating an older man...perhaps even 30....some women stopped school at 15 and were looking for security...and found that in older men. It wasn't looked highly upon but no one really cared either. I always find it interesting that in one culture something is perfectly legal while in another itll land you 30 years in prison.

I am calling b.s. on the whole thing. It's just an attempt to make people morally outraged enough to let authorities clamp down and take control of the Internet. That's it and that's all.

originally posted by: AnIntellectualRedneck
I am calling b.s. on the whole thing. It's just an attempt to make people morally outraged enough to let authorities clamp down and take control of the Internet. That's it and that's all.

I'm still unsure, but that's the vibe I'm getting as well. Such a convenient time to start paying attention to something that has been happening for a while.

Somebody shine some light in those dark corners and scurry out all the cockroaches.

Agreed as to an ulterior motive for creating outrage.

Just because scummy people use the sewer system, shall we stop indoor plumbing?

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: eisegesis

That old chestnut eh? Nothing to do with the fact that TPTB also utilise the dark networks for there own nefarious purposes.

I would imagine those nefarious purposes include exchanging child pornography. There are some sick bastards in high places.

Thought provoking thread and I'm not sure if there are any easy answers (if any at all). It's a subject I think about a lot (the internet and what it's doing to global human culture and brains). So thanks for the excuse to ramble for a little while lol.

I love technology - I love the internet - but I'm not so sure we're integrating it like we should be as I tend to take a Aldous Huxley'esque "Island" like approach to my perception of the role of tech to human life and society (I like where the dude was comin' from). That said - I have a wealth of controversial views about this and other things so everything I write is totally, like, my opinion man...

The internet has been treated as an absolutely unbridled toy since its release to the public in the mid 90's. It has the ability to propel self learning to a level never seen before at this point - and also the potential for the spread of gross ignorance and (more or less) a negative world view due to the influx of 24/7/365 information and emotion centering around online media. I think about what it would do to humans to have it altered or changed suddenly, and the aftermath of such an act, and I can't help but think it would have a horrible outcome - at least initially - and that's with attempts to change it currently in the works (or tried before I.E. SOPA and PIPA). I very much doubt the attempts will cease.

Anyway have you ever tried taking a favorite toy away from a child? Or replacing it with another one?

It doesn't, generally, go smoothly.

As developed (and developing) nations around the world are all but wet wired into the internet at this point in the digital age, it has become the ULTIMATE form of placation - rivaling recreational drug use and even sexual intercourse. I think there are as many problems with the current form of the internet as there are good things about it - but its unbridled state may pose bigger challenges (like that of the dark net) and others that we may not even be aware of yet or are beginning to be aware of.

Unfortunately the issue pedophilia will continue to exist as long as there are humans as that is a part of the more bizarre human sexual nature and is an issue that has been a dark splinter (just one of many) in the human psyche for ages - the net has only made us more aware of it (and many other things) in modern times. Problems like those brought up by the horrors that can be found in the cracks of human society like the dark net are not going to be fixed by altering the toys we choose to play with that make us more aware of it - it will only hide it. That is a kind of willful ignorance and that is one of the most dreadful enemies to the progress of humanity.

I think the bigger problem with the internet is the amount of useless information and what it's doing to our brains and behavior as a whole. When there is such a plethora of information how does a society know without a doubt what is actually important and what is not? Our butt end of a digital age has become so packed full of any kind of information that you can think of (and even more that you can't think of or don't want to think of like the dark net) that it's more difficult to discern what's actually important to humans and what is not.

I think about the possibility that so much STUFF is contributing MORE to our collective insanity than it is taking away from it. But - when I think about it - the internet is actually a kind of mirror pointed at humanity that shows us our current level of awareness and our collective mental state as a species.

So I think yes something should be done - but then I realize that it wouldn't change the things about us that I don't like (like pedophilia or prejudice or war)... it would only change our ability to see ourselves as we are - and I think having that "mirror" whole and unbroken may actually benefit us in the long run as it is a kind of "attention" and attention is the only thing that helps you change what you don't like - if you don't pay attention to it you don't know it's there...

So... my answer would be - no... I don't think we can take out the trash without taking out the entire room - but I have no problems with a new room from what I can tell right now (however - many billions of humans MAY have a problem with a new room).

Does that rambling make ANY sense at all? I have not drank any alcohol or consumed any drugs today lol.

Thanks again for something to chew my moustache about.

a reply to: rockpaperhammock

Glad you made it back alive. Hopefully you played your cards right and didn't attract any unwanted attention.

The law tries to interpret morality. Something which it inherently cant do. The fact that morality is a subjective term doesn't help either.

A law abiding and moral society cannot exist together without there being shades of grey. Evil lurks in the grey as much as the dark.

a reply to: rockpaperhammock

When I lived in a different country it was not that odd to see a 15 yr old girl dating an older man...perhaps even 30....some women stopped school at 15 and were looking for security...and found that in older men. It wasn't looked highly upon but no one really cared either.

They should care.
Its exploitation pure and simple, what could a 30 year old man possibly have in common or see in a 15 yo child other than view them as a sex toy.
If they really had the girls best interests at heart why not provide security by means of sponsoring their education, when the girl has finished school and is financially independant, educated and a bit older and wiser, if she still wants to be with a dirty old man then thats fine, somehow I dont think it would be the case.

Ive lived in SE Asia for awhile so I know exactly what your talking about, sadly Ive become desensitised when I see it on the streets, not 15 year olds thank god but girls 18-25 with fat old white men 50+. Absolutely disgusting and the only thing that makes it acceptable in these places is the extreme poverty

a reply to: eisegesis

sorry..... see the next post down, ty

originally posted by: St Udio
a reply to: eisegesis

...The study paints an ugly portrait of that Internet underground:
drug forums and contraband markets are the largest single category of sites hidden under Tor’s protection, but traffic to them is dwarfed by visits to child abuse sites....

I guarantee the contraband markets are likely death-traps or just common thieves looking to rip off the amateur wanna-be's that are treading in the dark corners of the underworld where they should not be !
porn or even youngster video porn is a much safer area I would guess...
but actually ordering a menu-item kid for physical contact would be very risky and costly, dangerous...

so the actual reality of such transactions is most likely rare as hens teeth...
this thread is an exercise in demonization for the purpose of controlling the social media/internet/Wi-Fi communications arena...
ibet all new generation connectivity devices have tracking & backdoors by the authorities

a reply to: IkNOwSTuff

I was referencing Germany and it wasnt really exploitation...honestly they seemed happy...and over there sex isnt as taboo. I agree we would think this but honestly believe it was something completely else. Also keep in mind some men think younger...or have the mentality of a younger male. I'm not defending it but surely cultural differences have to be put into the equation on such a sensative topic.

If .03 of the Internet is searchable, and 80% of what isn't searchable is child pornography, it would seem to indicate that 79.97% of the entire internet is child pornography, not counting the child pornography that actually is indexed.

Nope.

Edit:

My math is messed up and nothing I am saying here makes any sense. I am leaving it here as an indicator that faulty math can make good figures look wrong.

a reply to: St Udio

this thread is an exercise in demonization for the purpose of controlling the social media/internet/Wi-Fi communications arena...

The content I sourced may be guilty of that, but if you read the whole thread you would know that is not my intention. I don't expect you to know what I stand for. I like making threads I think will spark a good debate and don't mind discussing or entertaining different viewpoints.

Remember when AOL made you pay per minute? We have broken that chain and I will be damned if we ever go back to a similar model. There has to be a better way.

They were saying the same thing about P2P years ago. Same old song.

Very good thoughts very well layed out...thank you. I didn't even know of the dark webs existence until now. But as you mentioned in your discourse the web and the "usage" of it's content is an excellent reflection of human desire upon the earth right now.

Judging from my own childhood and the sexual desires that I had at a young age 6 yrs on up. I would say that if an attractive adult woman tried to seduce me to do things with/for her. I would have probably gladly went along with her. And then to think that she could have been sent to prison for it would have really freaked me out. I don't know how to make that fit in with this stuff ?

For those who don't know, the "dark" part of the internet consists of network hosts that cannot be reached by normal means.

This means a lot of unlisted sites and being called dark sites.

Anyone can have a dark site if you get server space with a site ip address.

Most large companies have dark sites.
Most government contractors have dark sites.
Wind turbines across the US are run on dark sites.
Even some elected officials have dark sites between there state offices and DC.

Why??? these dark sites, Emails can be hacked or the courts can order them subpoenaed for cases.

Its harder to find and subpoena encrypted dark site communications.

Sometimes it even hard to prove there is a dark side site.

Most dark sites are cheaper because you do not even have to have a site name like abovetopsecret.com just a ip address like 173.30.92.161

Most people that have dark sites do not hide behind TOR though.

15 years ago i use to hunt unlisted dark sites by progressively running ip addresses with a program a friend wrote.

Back then you could find sites that would give you a blue screen with small boxes for user name and password.

they may still be there as i have not looked for years.

a reply to: eisegesis

There are many undercover investigators that have infiltrated that of which you speak. In this new year of 2015 I believe there are going to be massive arrests in this area.

Many peoples secret lives and evil deeds are going to be revealed...and many children will be saved.