Huge child porn ring busted

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In summary, law enforcement officials believe that an estimated 600 people accessed a private, members-only Internet bulletin board called Dreamboard in order to view graphic images of children being sexually assaulted. Federal prosecutors have filed charges against 72 people, many of whom are from outside of the United States, in what they described as the largest prosecution ever of an online child pornography operation.
  • #1
zomgwtf
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Investigators said an estimated 600 people used a private, members-only Internet bulletin board called Dreamboard to access the graphic images. Federal prosecutors have filed charges against 72 people in what they described as the largest prosecution ever of an online child pornography operation.
...
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents said dozens of children, in the U.S. and overseas, have been brought to safety after they were identified in the more than 27,000 images uploaded to the Internet bulletin board, NBC News reported. In addition to the U.S., arrests were made in Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hungary, Kenya, The Netherlands, the Philippines, Qatar, Serbia, Sweden and Switzerland.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44002915/ns/us/_news-crime_and_courts/#.TjmjfGFKO_I

There was over 100 terabytes of child pornography swapped here.

From the indictment I've read the rules required to be in the site.
b. Keep the girls under 13, in fact, I really need to see 12 or younger to know your [sic] a brother
...
c. And don't avoid nudity in previews. I will not accept you if there's [sic] no nudity...

Here's the indictment document:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/61615609/Rush-F-Blankenship-Indictment

The language is strong in some parts (such as the rules).

This is absolutely disgusting. There are some reports from British media that there were even 'child porn snuff videos' where they filmed children being killed.

What I'm curious about is how such a ring could have gone on long enough to amass over 100 terabytes of child pornography. How could the hosts of this forum not do anything about what was being done? With file names such as:
toddler - man trying to penatrade toddler girl 3yo gets it every way imaginable.mpg

The titles given on the website were far worse... far worse. I hope every person involved in this forum are extradited to the states
 
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  • #2
zomgwtf said:
There was over 100 terabytes of child pornography swapped here.

Crazy :frown:
 
  • #3
I don't even want to click on that link... this ****ing sickens me.
 
  • #4
Greg Bernhardt said:
Crazy :frown:

Indeed. Doesn't the host of PF have stipulations against pornography, specifically child pornography? Even if it's linked from the outside?

Like I can't post any link on this forum to child pornography and have you let it stay here and endorse it right? Wouldn't that be a violation of the TOS from you to your host?

I don't get how it could have taken so long for them to make a bust that these people were able to transfer so much data amongst themselves. Especially on a forum which was openly for pedophiles and one which was openly for sharing pedophilia images/videos (it's blatantly obvious from the forum rules which are in the indictment).
 
  • #5
Some of the children featured in these images and videos were just infants

What the hell
 
  • #6
zomgwtf said:
Indeed. Doesn't the host of PF have stipulations against pornography, specifically child pornography? Even if it's linked from the outside?

Legal pornography is fine. Child porn they have obvious problems with.
 
  • #7
Any idea how many arrests have been made?
 
  • #8
WhoWee said:
Any idea how many arrests have been made?

I believe over 60 many from different countries (two are here in Canada one in my province of Ontario, he's currently held without bail and is fighting extradition)
 
  • #9
"Getta rope, we're going to have us a lynchin."
 
  • #10
It's been about a week since I last posted my desire to outsource the penal system (for folks like these) to places like Turkey.
 
  • #11
All that time children were being tortured and molested? Why did it take them years to get these guys? Are there legal bottlenecks that slow investigators down in grabbing these monsters?
 
  • #12
Newai said:
All that time children were being tortured and molested? Why did it take them years to get these guys? Are there legal bottlenecks that slow investigators down in grabbing these monsters?

No, I don't think so. It's just too easy to hide. They do their evil out of sight of society, and it's easy for them to conceal that side of themselves. I remember a story of a guy who was arrested in Thailand for molesting children, and he was a pediatrician!

I can only hope these bastards get what's coming to them.
 
  • #14
lisab said:
No, I don't think so. It's just too easy to hide. They do their evil out of sight of society, and it's easy for them to conceal that side of themselves. I remember a story of a guy who was arrested in Thailand for molesting children, and he was a pediatrician!

I can only hope these bastards get what's coming to them.

But if these idiots can congregate among themselves on the Internet, then there is clearly some support network. I just don't see how they can keep that concealed for years.

I know the fed isn't exactly lingering, but I thought there might be legal hurdles that impede their work. And if there is, then those obstacles need to be removed.
 
  • #15
Newai said:
But if these idiots can congregate among themselves on the Internet, then there is clearly some support network. I just don't see how they can keep that concealed for years.

I know the fed isn't exactly lingering, but I thought there might be legal hurdles that impede their work. And if there is, then those obstacles need to be removed.

A lot of those rings don't operate on the surface web. And they're big about security. They usually hide behind mazes of proxies. It's not really efficient to go after people individually, that's why they do the stings, get into the organization, so you can get them to come to you. It's also tricky since you working with an international legal framework. I don't know about this specific site, but on the deep web there are pedos creeping everywhere. If this was a surface site, then it's actually sort of a soft target.EDIT:
Another Point: From a law enforcement standpoint, it actually makes some sense to let these networks remain open and track their members. This way you can create a list of potential child molestors, and if something happens, cross reference the area with the suspects in the vicinity.
 
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  • #16
the information age and ...

Has anyone read the Kinsey reports ?

I don't understand the shock about this... this is almost 'normal'.
( Please consider in my reply .. ..I do not condone ANY kind of forced sex .. )
really, this kind of stuff is thousands of years old.

We need more 'study' and open honesty about SEX. This is emotional ... not scienceas example ...
WhoWee said:
It's been about a week since I last posted my desire to outsource the penal system (for folks like these) to places like Turkey.
Like ...why Turkey? ... and not... say ... Canada?
 
  • #17
Alfi said:
Like ...why Turkey? ... and not... say ... Canada?
Because Turkish prisons have long been infamous due, in part, to the film "Midnight Express".

No idea if that's what WhoWee meant.
 
  • #18
Alfi said:
I don't understand the shock about this... this is almost 'normal'.

What's normal in that? Some of the victims were babies.
 
  • #19
This is how cancer spreads on the internet.
 
  • #20
Galteeth said:
A lot of those rings don't operate on the surface web. And they're big about security. They usually hide behind mazes of proxies. It's not really efficient to go after people individually, that's why they do the stings, get into the organization, so you can get them to come to you. It's also tricky since you working with an international legal framework. I don't know about this specific site, but on the deep web there are pedos creeping everywhere. If this was a surface site, then it's actually sort of a soft target.


EDIT:
Another Point: From a law enforcement standpoint, it actually makes some sense to let these networks remain open and track their members. This way you can create a list of potential child molestors, and if something happens, cross reference the area with the suspects in the vicinity.

it's not just internet, surface web or not. people are pimping out kids in real life. it seems reasonable that if they went after those people, then it might become apparent how they find each other.
 
  • #21
Evo said:
Because Turkish prisons have long been infamous due, in part, to the film "Midnight Express".

No idea if that's what WhoWee meant.

That is exactly what I meant.
 
  • #22
Has anybody here NOT seen "A Time to Kill"? The film is star-studded from beginning to end and centers around the legal defense of the father of a black child who was raped, dumped and left for dead in MS.

The movie is an adaptation of a Grisham novel, and is a study in human response (though the jurors' standpoints) regarding rape and retribution. Since we got satellite TV, my wife has been hooked on Law and Order SVU, staring Mariska Hartingay, and though the stories are well-written and portrayed, the subject matter is often too disturbing for me to watch.
 
  • #23
Whenever I read the contentious debate about the Internet being uncensored, this is the first thing that springs to mind and my preference is always to sacrifice however much freedom is necessary to stop this kind of thing being perpetrated. Yes, it won't stop it happening in real life, but it will stop the perpretrators from feeding on and justifying their actions on the internet. I think a previous poster mentioned "monitoring the people doing it and then nab them", which on a gut feeling I don't agree with, but would have to think it through. The internet has made this a global problem, and a proper global response (if possible) would be needed to tackle it. In the absence of that, removing them from the internet, would reduce this to an issue for each nation, and I believe would reduce the amount of harm done to children, though I have no proof or link to back this up. ISP's could assist in this, their stance of just "providing the service" and pushing the responsibility to the users of the service, does not protect vulnerable children around the world.
 
  • #24
turbo said:
Has anybody here NOT seen "A Time to Kill"? The film is star-studded from beginning to end and centers around the legal defense of the father of a black child who was raped, dumped and left for dead in MS.

The movie is an adaptation of a Grisham novel, and is a study in human response (though the jurors' standpoints) regarding rape and retribution. Since we got satellite TV, my wife has been hooked on Law and Order SVU, staring Mariska Hartingay, and though the stories are well-written and portrayed, the subject matter is often too disturbing for me to watch.
I read the novel. It was much more focused on the racial elements. Sort of a modernized To Kill a Mocking Bird. No idea what the movie is like.

cobalt124 said:
Whenever I read the contentious debate about the Internet being uncensored, this is the first thing that springs to mind and my preference is always to sacrifice however much freedom is necessary to stop this kind of thing being perpetrated. Yes, it won't stop it happening in real life, but it will stop the perpretrators from feeding on and justifying their actions on the internet. I think a previous poster mentioned "monitoring the people doing it and then nab them", which on a gut feeling I don't agree with, but would have to think it through. The internet has made this a global problem, and a proper global response (if possible) would be needed to tackle it. In the absence of that, removing them from the internet, would reduce this to an issue for each nation, and I believe would reduce the amount of harm done to children, though I have no proof or link to back this up. ISP's could assist in this, their stance of just "providing the service" and pushing the responsibility to the users of the service, does not protect vulnerable children around the world.
I believe that there is an Interpol division specifically assigned to investigate child pornography rings.
http://www.interpol.int/Public/Children/Default.asp
 
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  • #25
cobalt124 said:
Whenever I read the contentious debate about the Internet being uncensored, this is the first thing that springs to mind and my preference is always to sacrifice however much freedom is necessary to stop this kind of thing being perpetrated. Yes, it won't stop it happening in real life, but it will stop the perpretrators from feeding on and justifying their actions on the internet. I think a previous poster mentioned "monitoring the people doing it and then nab them", which on a gut feeling I don't agree with, but would have to think it through. The internet has made this a global problem, and a proper global response (if possible) would be needed to tackle it. In the absence of that, removing them from the internet, would reduce this to an issue for each nation, and I believe would reduce the amount of harm done to children, though I have no proof or link to back this up. ISP's could assist in this, their stance of just "providing the service" and pushing the responsibility to the users of the service, does not protect vulnerable children around the world.


At this point, "censoring"the internet isn't really all that feasible. The Australia black site approach would do next to nothing against these rings, while restricting access for people who are not internet savvy.
 
  • #26
Subject line is misleading. I thought this thread was going to be about a huge child porn ring, but apparently it's just about a normal child porn ring.
 
  • #27
TheStatutoryApe said:
I believe that there is an Interpol division specifically assigned to investigate child pornography rings.

Yes I'd forgotten about Interpol, it's just a shame that their role is no more than administrative and "intelligence sharing" between national police forces, whereas in the case of child pornography what would be nice to see is a single international force operating to stop the perpetrators. Before the near unanimous international response to Libya I probably would have dismissed this idea straight away, at the moment things like this seem more possible.

Galteeth said:
At this point, "censoring"the internet isn't really all that feasible. The Australia black site approach would do next to nothing against these rings, while restricting access for people who are not internet savvy.

No, it wouldn't be easy, and couldn't be totally removed. I don't agree that censoring would do nothing, though. I think it would reduce a lot of direct victimisation of those children used to pleasure the "armchair paedophiles" who abuse these children directly (it should be seen like that IMO) in the comfort and safety of their own homes, who are presumably paying for the "service". Remove that, and I believe many of these "paying creatures" will not leave their armchairs and will pleasure themselves in other ways that will not directly harm children. This doesn't go to the root of the problem, but I think there is sense that it removes from them their "sense of justification" for their actions ("it's on the internet, no-one will know, therefore its OK") and the remoteness of the childs suffering ("I don't see it, therefore I'm not responsible for it/its not happening really/its on a different continent it doesn't matter"). Another way of putting it is to paraphrase what Margaret Thatcher tried to do to Sinn Fein in the late eighties (no direct comparison here!), and "deny them the oxygen of each others influence", or even better (can't remember where I read this, may even have been on PF), "deny them the oxygen of oxygen".
 
  • #28
cobalt124 said:
Remove that, and I believe many of these "paying creatures" will not leave their armchairs and will pleasure themselves in other ways that will not directly harm children. .

I wouldn't take that bet.
 
  • #29
Galteeth said:
I wouldn't take that bet.

Me too neither.

It's not like the pedophilia industry was invented with the birth of the internet. Far from it.
 
  • #30
As much as I hate child porn, I don't believe censoring it would be the least bit effective. In fact, I doubt it's even possible to completely filter out child porn and it may only serve to make it more difficult to find people who are distributing material. Worse, any kind of censoring scheme is bound to be ultimately used to block websites for purely political reasons.
 
  • #31
JaWiB said:
As much as I hate child porn, I don't believe censoring it would be the least bit effective. In fact, I doubt it's even possible to completely filter out child porn and it may only serve to make it more difficult to find people who are distributing material. Worse, any kind of censoring scheme is bound to be ultimately used to block websites for purely political reasons.

I don't think you can give an inch on this subject.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/11273289...-pushing-for-decriminalization-of-pedophilia/
"Group of Psychologists Pushing for Decriminalization of Pedophilia"
 
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  • #32
Alfi said:
the information age and ...

Has anyone read the Kinsey reports ?

I don't understand the shock about this... this is almost 'normal'.
( Please consider in my reply .. ..I do not condone ANY kind of forced sex .. )
really, this kind of stuff is thousands of years old.

We need more 'study' and open honesty about SEX.


This is emotional ... not science


as example ...

Like ...why Turkey? ... and not... say ... Canada?

Alfi,
I was severely abused as a child, emotionally but not sexually. There was nothing concentual about what I experienced. There is nothing concentual about sexual contact of any kind between an adult and a child. All forms of child abuse are a sick objectification of the child as a thing that you can do whatever you want with. Sick people need therapy and exclusion from society until, if ever, they are cured. I'm not against their extermination, as a cost cutting measure. Yes I objectify abusers.

I await your inevitable responce that I must necessarily be sick. (my responce is that I only get one vote- the act (extermination)would be a majority decision.)
mathal
 
  • #33
mathal said:
Alfi,
I was severely abused as a child, emotionally but not sexually. There was nothing concentual about what I experienced. There is nothing concentual about sexual contact of any kind between an adult and a child. All forms of child abuse are a sick objectification of the child as a thing that you can do whatever you want with. Sick people need therapy and exclusion from society until, if ever, they are cured. I'm not against their extermination, as a cost cutting measure. Yes I objectify abusers.

I await your inevitable responce that I must necessarily be sick. (my responce is that I only get one vote- the act (extermination)would be a majority decision.)
mathal
I'm so very sorry to hear about your abuse. My mother was physically and mentally abused by relatives and friends of her parents that she was dumped on before she was sent to a convent of vicious nuns that would scrub her throat with turpentine until her skin peeled off. The other physical and mental abuse is too bad to post here. She did get rescued by her grandmother, eventually, and she turned out to be a very loving, caring person.

The reason child abuse is so widespread is that the children can't fight back. The abusers are cowards as well as criminals.
 
  • #34
Galteeth said:
I wouldn't take that bet.

DaveC426913 said:
Me too neither.

It's not like the pedophilia industry was invented with the birth of the internet. Far from it.

Yes, I realize this, and reading your response I thought "am I advocating "out of sight, out of mind""? Had a think, and I am not advocating that, or that censorship will cure the problem, just that access should not be made so easy.

JaWiB said:
...I doubt it's even possible to completely filter out child porn and it may only serve to make it more difficult to find people who are distributing material...

The situation is already at this point, and minimising the ease of availability would be an improvement.

JaWiB said:
Worse, any kind of censoring scheme is bound to be ultimately used to block websites for purely political reasons.

If politicians wanted to block websites, they could do it by other means if this was not in place.

WhoWee said:
I don't think you can give an inch on this subject.

Agreed.

mathal said:
Alfi,
I was severely abused as a child, emotionally...

The thing about emotional abuse, unlike say, sexual abuse, is that it can be hard to name, hard to pin down to a specific act, and can be more damaging. Not nice, and not easy to live with. Stay well.
 
  • #35
This is utterly shameful to see how far society goes with the benign of technology.
 

1. What is a child porn ring?

A child porn ring is a group of individuals who are involved in the production, distribution, or possession of child pornography. This can include images, videos, or other forms of media depicting sexual acts involving children.

2. How was the child porn ring busted?

The child porn ring was busted through a combination of investigative work, tips from the public, and cooperation between law enforcement agencies. Police may have also used surveillance techniques and search warrants to gather evidence.

3. How many people were involved in the child porn ring?

The number of people involved in the child porn ring can vary and may not be known until the investigation is complete. However, it is likely that there were multiple individuals involved in the production, distribution, and possession of child pornography.

4. What happens to the individuals involved in the child porn ring?

The individuals involved in the child porn ring may face criminal charges for their involvement in the production, distribution, or possession of child pornography. They may also face additional charges if they were involved in the exploitation or abuse of children.

5. How can we prevent child porn rings from forming?

Preventing child porn rings requires a combination of education, prevention, and enforcement efforts. This includes educating the public about the dangers of child pornography, increasing penalties for those involved in the production and distribution of child pornography, and providing resources for victims and survivors of child exploitation.

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