ChildPornography
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AT&T pulls ads from YouTube over pedophilia controversy
As YouTube continues to struggle with the issue of child predators latching on to content for kids, the video platform has lost another major advertiser. AT&T has decided to pull its ads from YouTube, according to CNBC. The telecom giant joins Disney, Nestle and Fortnite maker Epic Games in removing advertising from YouTube while the issue persists.
Disney, Nestle pull YouTube ads in uproar over child videos
YouTube is still grappling with predatory comments on child videos, and it's once again facing the consequences. Bloomberg has learned that Disney, Fortnite creator Epic Games, Nestle and Oetker have "paused" spending on YouTube ads after video blogger Mark Watson shared a video showing how comments on videos with children were being used to enable an ad hoc softcore child porn ring. Commenters would flag videos where underage girls were performing supposedly suggestive actions, such as gymnastics, while YouTube's own algorithms would inadvertently suggest similar videos.
Tumblr reportedly pulled from App Store over child exploitation
When Tumblr for iOS suddenly vanished from the App Store a few days ago, neither the social network nor Apple issued an explanation for it. According to Download.com, though, the tech giant removed the app because some images depicting child sexual abuse got past Tumblr's filters. The website says it confirmed the cause of the app's disappearance with Tumblr (owned by the same company as Engadget) after learning about it from independent sources. It presented its findings to the platform, which admitted that it had discovered content on its website that haven't been added to the database of known child sexual abuse material yet.
Facebook uses machine learning to fight child exploitation
Today, Facebook's Global Head of Safety, Antigone Davis, published a blog post outlining how the social network fights child exploitation. The company uses standard industry practices, such as requiring users to be 13 years or older, using photo-matching to identify known images and reporting any violations to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Apple briefly pulled Telegram over child pornography distribution
When Apple temporarily pulled Telegram from the App Store over "inappropriate content," it left many wondering just what that content was. We now know: 9to5Mac has learned that the company removed the app after discovering that people had been distributing child pornography through the app. Apple both contacted Telegram's team and authorities (including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) to both address the specific violation and to ensure that there were "more controls" in place to prevent a repeat.
Facebook admits its image screening fell short
To say that Facebook has some egg on its face right now would be an understatement. The social network not only didn't take down some sexualized images of children, but reported the BBC when it drew these images to its attention. However, the company now says it has turned a corner. Facebook's Simon Milner tells the UK's Home Affairs Committee that the incident showed the company's moderation system "was not working." The offending photos have since been taken down, he says, adding that the process should be fixed.
Hack knocks out a fifth of the Dark Web
The Dark Web is having a rough time right now... although the victims in this case won't earn too much sympathy. An Anonymous-linked hacker speaking to Motherboard brought down about a fifth of the Tor network's 'secret' websites (over 10,000 of them) in a claimed vigilante move. The intruder decided to attack a Dark Web hosting service, Freedom Hosting II, after discovering that it was managing child porn sites it had to be aware of -- they were using gigabytes of data each when the host officially allows no more than 256MB. Each site had its usual pages replaced with a message that not only chastised FH2, but offered a data dump (minus user info) and explained the nature of the hack.
FBI allegedly paid Geek Squad for evidence
Last May, the defense in a child pornography trial alleged that the FBI used a member of electronics retailer Best Buy's tech support team, Geek Squad, to peer into the accused's computer on the hunt for evidence of child pornography. Since then, the defense's lawyers revealed that the FBI had cultivated at least eight of the company's IT handyfolk over a four-year period to serve as confidential informants, who all received some payment for turning over data. Obviously, this raises serious questions about whether sending devices into the repair shop forfeits a person's right to privacy or unreasonable search and seizure.
Tor exploit targeted visitors to a Dark Web child porn site
Word has been circulating of a security exploit being used to compromise Tor Browser users, and we now know who some of the targets are. Motherboard has learned that the JavaScript-based attack was used to target visitors to The GiftBox Exchange, a Dark Web child pornography site. The discovery not only raised alarm bells on the shadier side of the Dark Web (one wiki warned that it was a "NIT," or a network investigative technique used by law enforcement), but led GiftBox to abruptly shut down on November 15th out of fear of police action. You won't find many people shedding a tear over the closure, of course. However, it raises a question: just who's using it?
FBI improved a Dark Web child pornography site, lawyer argues
The FBI operated Playpen, a child pornography site on the Dark Web, for nearly two weeks in February 2015, distributing malware to users so the bureau could track suspected pedophiles across the globe. It was a major bust, with the FBI hacking 4,000 computers and leading to charges against 186 people so far, Motherboard reports. This week, a lawyer for one man accused of running Playpen argued that the site operated even better while under the FBI's control, leading to an increase in users and distribution numbers.
Alien sex tapes, robot rape and the evolution of consent
A little over a week ago Engadget's EIC and I had dinner with a couple of friends at a Chinatown Thai restaurant in L.A. As I sipped on a Singha Slurpee, our dinner companions, Claire Evans and Jona Bechtolt of the band Yacht, gave us an off-the-record rundown of a bizarre and twisted plan for the release of their next single, I Wanna Fuck You Till I'm Dead. They'd created a One Night in Paris-style sex tape spoof with a twist: Instead of peeling off their clothes, the couple would peel back their flesh to reveal hypersexualized alien bodies.
FBI Dark Web hacks were a part of a global child porn bust
That FBI hacking initiative that caught 1,500 pedophiles on the Dark Web? It was just the tip of the iceberg. Motherboard has discovered that the operation was just one part of Operation Pacifier, a global campaign to fight child porn hidden through anonymity networks like Tor. The effort had the FBI hacking systems as far afield as Chile, Denmark and Greece -- there are also hints of possible operations in Colombia and Turkey. The US agency wasn't working alone, either, as it teamed up with Europol to collect information and pass it along to local law enforcement.
FBI hacked the Dark Web to bust 1,500 pedophiles
The Federal Bureau of Investigation infiltrated and shut down what it called "the largest remaining known child pornography hidden service in the world" this summer, using a hacking method to track IP addresses on the Dark Web, Vice Motherboard reported. The Dark Web bulletin board site, named "Playpen," launched in August 2014 and within one year had garnered 215,000 accounts with 11,000 unique visitors each week.
Internet giants team up to fight child porn through shared lists
The world's larger online companies have already been doing quite a lot to combat child porn on their own, but they're now teaming up to fight that sexual abuse across the internet. Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo are partnering with the UK's Internet Watch Foundation to share hash lists (aka digital fingerprints) of blocked indecent images. In theory, the move makes sure that a photo pulled on one site doesn't simply pop up elsewhere. All of the IWF's members will eventually use the list, so you could soon see this collective blocking in use at Amazon, Apple, Dropbox and PayPal, among others.
The FBI needs your help finding 250 sextortion victims
Lucas Michael Chansler is a 26-year-old sexual predator sentenced to 105 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple counts of child pornography production. Over several years, he tricked roughly 350 teenage girls from 26 states into giving him explicit pictures of themselves by posing as a teen boy and befriending them online before threatening to distribute the photos on social media. He was eventually tracked down to his Jacksonville, Florida home when one victim reported his extortion attempts to the FBI and the The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. While the Feds have been able to locate more than 100 of his underage victims, nearly 250 young women have yet to be identified. And that's where you come in.
EU Written Declaration 29 wants you to think of the children, hand over all your search results
Oh boy, the EU's back on the crusade path again. This time, the Brussels brain trust has decided it will end pedophilia, child pornography, and other miscreant activities by simply and easily recording everyone's search results. Because, as we all know, Google searches are the central cog by which the seedy underworld operates. Here's how Declaration 29 sees it: Asks the Council and the Commission to implement Directive 2006/24/EC and extend it to search engines in order to tackle online child pornography and sex offending rapidly and effectively. Directive 2006/24/EC is also known as the Data Retention Directive, and permits (nay, compels) states to keep track of all electronic communications, including phone calls, emails and browsing sessions. Describing the stupefying invasion of privacy that its expansion represents as an "early warning system," the European Parliament is currently collecting signatures from MEPs and is nearing the majority it requires to adopt the Declaration. Guess when Google does it, it's a horrible infraction of human rights, but when the EU does it, it's some noble life-saving endeavor. Unsurprisingly, not everyone is convinced that sifting through people's search results will produce concrete crime-reducing results, and Swedish Pirate Party MEP Christian Engstrom puts together a very good explanation of what Written Declaration 29 entails and why it's such a bad idea. Give it a read, won't ya?
