Former federal prosecutor and child protection advocate Francey Hakes explains the role that so-called darknet content plays to drive child exploitation online by allowing offenders to easily share files.
You might already be aware of the darknet aspect of the Internet, but many people still do not know about it, which makes it easier for porn images to be traded without being detected.
“Any sites that are posting or people who are sharing information on the darknet side of the Internet – that Google search will not locate anything on that particular side of the Internet,” Hakes explains. “So it’s unsearchable mostly by the normal search engines.”
She said this largely unknown part of the Internet is typically used by people trying to share files that they don’t want detected by law enforcement – which could be any kind of files, not just pornography involving children. “So it’s basically a secret portion of the Internet where you can do to engage in nefarious actions.”
Hakes adds that social scientists have been reviewing the darknet in a bid to determine exactly who is using it for what purposes and discovered that child exploitation is one of the biggest problems resulting from it.
“Many people, if not a majority of people who go into the darknet are going specifically to share child pornography – using these peer-to-peer file sharing networks,” she said.
“I call child pornography an absolute epidemic because it is all over the Internet – it’s all over the legitimate Internet, and it’s all over the darknet.”
Watch the full episode for a discussion on the case of predator Kelly Farley, a clean-cut family man who began an online relationship with a woman online and ended up making arrangements to meet a child under 11 years old with the intent to have sex.
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