Sexually abused children’s pictures spread through the Internet

2 October, 2019

New York Times published an investigation where it is shown that at least 45 million images -both pictures and videos– of children being sexually abused have been shared on different platforms on the Internet.

Free platform.

Humankind’s worst things and behaviors may be exhibited on the Internet, and it may let it go just because is a free-use platform. We are talking about terrible content that infiltrates through the web that does not make it up for the damage it causes or the intentions behind its publication. Also, the organisms that must be regulating this problem act passively, resulting in letting the amount of child pornography content increase each year.

The investigation holds that there are, approximately, 45 million videos and pictures of girls and boys being sexually abused. At least, 10 thousand pages on policial reports and legal documents that show technology and its developers do not have the tools required to stop this kind of content’s proliferation, without giving it the same treatment that is applied to hate-speech-based messages or terrorist propaganda.

When it comes to this kind of content’s presence and the way the models used by pedophiles to transfer the information safely escalates, institutions like the National Center for Disappeared and Exploited Children advise that the number of reports exceeds the response capacity that the involved organizations and the forces of law have. They cannot make effective moves against this problem.

Since 1998, when there were 3,000 cases of child abuse reported, the amount has been increasing, year after year, until 2018, when there were 18,4 million cases of child abuse-related content reported.

The problem is that the victims fear of being recognized by their photos or videos on the Internet, after having their lives shattered by the abuse perpetrated by relatives or strangers.

Thinking about this issue, there is a victim that was filmed while being abused by its father when the attacked one was 11 years old. It does not matter how hard this person tries to feel good and overcome that disgrace, the footage keeps the abuse breathing 20 years later and it will make it harder to forget it.

How the material get to the web

The reported material has a regular flow after being uploaded to the web. Once identified, it is reported by other users or the companies that provide Internet services. After this, the whole problem is in the law’s hands. Legal actions are taken after the specialist review the material. The most used platforms for child-abuse-related material are:

FTP
E-Mail
P2P
Chatrooms
Instant messenger
Forum
Gaming
SMS
Cell phone
Tor
URL

The top three countries with the largest child pornography traffic is conformed by:

India
Indonesia
Thailand

The top five is completed if we add Mexico and Bangladesh —positions 4 and 5 respectively— to that list. After these countries, we find the United States and Brazil with the highest number of reports related to their population.

The investigation also revealed that there are groups online dedicated to share images of younger kids and extreme abuse forms through encryption technologies and the dark web: the place on the Internet where everything is illicit and where information about how to commit the crimes, how to record the abuse, and how to share the images taken from the act, is given to pedophiles around the world.

These traffickers are at the forefront of technology to distribute the child-exploitation materials; they cover their fingerprints by connecting to private hidden virtual networks that allow them to

Cover their locations.
Deploy encryption techniques.
Hide messages.
Share on the dark web.

Social networks —like Facebook— and search engines —like Google— improved their platforms’ vigilancy, but they are required to report only when the child abuse images are discovered. The procedures may take several months, and sometimes they only answer to say that there is not a record, even when it is about reports that already started the legal process.

The social network Facebook announced its plans to cipher Messenger in March, considering that the last year, it was responsible for almost 12 out of the 18,4 million global reports related to child sexual abuse material.

Human trafficking: Children are the most vulnerable in Central America

Rafael Núñez

30 September, 2019

The regional coordinator on the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime‘s (UNODC) project Human Trafficking and Migrants Trafficking, Lourdes Gutiérrez, pointed out that underage people are the «most affected» and the most vulnerable before this situation in Central America. She broadcasted this statement during Honduras‘ sign-up to the UN’s Blue Heart Campaign.

More protection for children.

Underage people are the most vulnerable group when it comes to human trafficking in Central America, and this is something people do not talk about, although it is considered the third most profitable illicit business in the world. According to experts, human trafficking needs more social awareness to eradicate it.

Also, children are the ones that do not report this kind of acts, this is the reason why some organizations have taken the lead to express what is happening. Lourdes Gutiérrez, UNODC’s coordinator, explained that human trafficking may occur in these scenarios:

Within the family.
Parents may exploit the children.
Organized crime networks.

Source: UNODC’s official Facebook account.

The most common form of human trafficking is sexual exploitation. However, there are some others among these:

Working exploitation.
Mendicancy.
Illicit organ extraction.
Sexual tourism.

The UNODC created the Blue Heart campaign trying to create awareness about human trafficking crimes in the region. Crimes where most of the victims are women and girls.

Honduras became part of the Blue Heart.

Honduras’ sign-up in the UNODC’s campaign is aiming to expose human trafficking crimes in all the possible ways and characteristics, as well as creating awareness on different sectors to achieve real consciousness about this crime.

During Honduras’ sing-up, Karla Cuevas, Minister of Human Rights in the country, was present. She declared that human trafficking is one of the most severe human rights violations and it is considered the new slavery, in the XXI century.

Honduras has rescued at least 194 victims of human trafficking during this year, according to the Interinstitutional Comision Against Commercial Sexual Exploitation and Human Trafficking’s report.

Blue Heart is a campaign created in 2008 —it means the victims’ desolation, the traffickers’ cold heart, and the United Nations’ color—, and its main objective is to prevent this crime, besides encouraging institutions and civil society, so they can denounce, inform, and sensibilize on this scourge, considered the third most profitable illicit business in the world.

Caldo de Pollo (Chicken Stock): The pedophiles’ keyword

Rafael Núñez

27 September, 2019

In Twitter, a user published a thread with the results of a persona investigation she had made on some pedophiles‘ behavior. Specifically, how they look for child pornography clandestinely. She found out that they use the keyword «Caldo de Pollo (chicken stock)».

The «Caldo de Pollo (Chicken Stock)» and the «Club De Los Pingüinos (Pengüins’ Club or Club Pengüins)».

During her mission on infiltrating on the Internet to find out how pedophiles get child pornography, she discovered some disturbing things:

There is a lot of communities on the web that distributes this kind of material. Also, she spotted the keywords that pedophiles use to search for this kind of content on the web:

Caldo de Pollo (Chicken Stock).
Club Pengüin.

The reason why they use these combinations of words is that their initials are CP, the same initials on Children Pornography, and it might be used to refer to Child Pornography.

When this woman searched these terms on Google, she found cooking recipes within the top results. However, the deeper she went, she found WhatsApp groups that offered «tasty Caldo de Pollo (Chicken Stock)» packs.

She could not get in those groups to see if they were trafficking that kind of material, but as she kept investigating, she noticed that the same keywords were used to refer or search children pornography in some other social networks.

This Twitter thread had one response from another user that did his research, following this woman’s idea. He found a Telegram chat group, he got in covered under a 15-years-old teenager profile. Immediately, a man sent him child pornography.

This thread kept getting popular with more comments. Some people felt motivated to research on their own and share their experiences.

The Pedophile’s handbook.

The Internet has become the biggest place where pedophiles exchange child pornography through social networks —as mentioned before— and they trade it on the dark web, where multiple illicit acts are practiced, things like handbooks to perform these horrible things.

For example, there is the case of a Brazilian doctor accused of having child pornography. When the investigation started, within the doctor’s digital data, they found a document that might be described as a pedophiles’ handbook. The document shows:

How to approach children.
Which are the kids that are most likely not to be discovered and executing sexual aggressions.
Which are the best victims.
How to start talking with kids.

The handbook includes detailed information on how to have a sexual encounter with a child, described with explicit illustrations. The book also emphasizes the fact that having sex with a child is not something repulsive.

This and some other handbooks are part of a giant and millionaire network that has a lot of people involved that do not suffer from this pathology, but they use child pornography as their income source.

Child sexual violence should not be silenced

Rafael Núñez

23 September, 2019

The directors of the Guardianes organization affirm that if sexual violence is silenced, it is perpetuated. On the opposite, if it is spoken and treated properly, it can be ground for emotional health, knowledge, and people’s full potential development.

Prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse

The directors of the Guardianes organization, specialized in prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse, offered an interview to follow up on the investigation of the aggression case against two girls inside the bathrooms of an elementary school in Culiacán.

This organization worked some years ago in Mazatlan, Sinaloa, in almost fifty elementary schools, giving workshops to children, teachers, and parents, which allowed the organization to confirm that there is a great need to educate about sexual violence and share the appropriate information.

The Guardianes general director considers that it is necessary to clarify some terms when talking about sexual violence. For example, not reducing the importance of the matter by calling it abuse, harassment —or even— improper practice.

It is important to believe children when they report any type of abuse. Remember that their brain is in the development stage and, therefore, sometimes they cannot clearly distinguish the difference between reality and something they just observed. However, a child lying in matters of sexual abuse is not common at all.

Secondly, the child must be safe from the alleged aggressor, execute the complaint and look for specialized help to care for the victim. It is advisable to tell the victim that he was very brave when talking about what happened to him.

In the case of Culiacán, two girls were assaulted in an elementary school bathroom by an unknown man who entered the campus without being seen. The criminal escaped. The information was known because the mother of one of the girls shared it with the media and the authorities after the incident since she did not receive a response from the institution’s management.

The school’s principal considered that the fact was not a crime because the man did not touch the intimate parts of the girls, so she pointed out that the case was not going to be followed up.

Sexual violence

Sexual violence can occur with or without physical contact. According to experts, any erotic or lascivious contact with an underage person is considered child sexual violence.

The cases of grooming —in which an adult pretends to be a child to get their attention, asking them to pose, observe pornography or scenes of sexual content— are also sexual violence without physical contact. This type of approach usually happens through social networks.

To avoid cases like the one that occurred in Culiacán, schools must be prepared to prevent abuse towards their students.

In order for victims to heal, it is crucial to handle these cases properly. This guarantees that these aggressions will not be repeated. The most important thing is to emphasize that these accusations cannot be ignored, and the complaint must proceed in every case.

A.I. to catch pedophiles

Rafael Núñez

20 September, 2019

The Ministry of the Interior and Justice in the United Kingdom showcased a plan to fight against pedophilia on the Internet. The plan consists of using Artificial Intelligence tools to analyze audio and video. The idea behind this is to detect pedophiles more quickly. The initiative was accepted by the Prime Minister, who will provide the funds needed to apply it.

We must equip the forces with new technologies.

The presented plan consists of implementing Artificial Intelligence. This implies an actualization on the law enforcement agencies with new technologies. This will provide them the capability of localizing pedophiles operating on-line and protecting the children that have suffered from abuse.

The project will rely on 30 million pounds of funding, invested in a database that will be known as CAID (acronym in English). This resource was created in 2014 and it compilates 14 million pictures used by government agencies to reduce the time needed to identify pedophiles and their victims.

With these funds, the applied novelties will allow the agencies to:

Explore the improved Artificial Intelligence tools system incorporation.
Analyze the voice.
Estimate the age.

The project will incorporate, at the same time, efficient forensic tools that have been used in the United Kingdom since summer. These tools execute image categorization algorithms and scene comparison technology.

United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, acknowledged that the Internet can also be used as a safe space for criminals. This is the reason why he is willing to finance this project, with the funds and the resources need to capture delinquents that operate in the Dark Web.

Dark web: the pedophiles’ field.

According to the statistics from the Crime Nationa Agency in the United Kingdom, during 2018, around 2,88 million accounts were found on Dark Web sites, cyberspace known for hosting harmful and pedophilic content. At least, 5% of this kind of content, comes from the United Kingdom.

Dark Web is considered the dark side of the Internet. It is the place where pedophiles share and trade the material they produce. The sites that host child pornography are not found in search engines such as Google or Bing, but they can be found through links, normally shared on forums and groups, using a special web browser.

It is considered that everything found in the deep web is illicit. Besides, on these sites, tons of money are in constant movement through commercial transactions. Some non-pedophiles access these sites to use child pornography as their source of income.

Dozens of thousands of people use the dark web to buy child pornography. Some pages are visited as much as 500 times per second.

The massive complaint about pedophilia on the United States of America

Rafael Núñez

16 September, 2019

Missouri’s Attorney General, Eric Schmitt, made a massive accusation against members of the Catholic Church for cases of abuse, especially for ignoring cases of sexual abuse that occurred internally. For this reason, he gave a dozen former clergymen a criminal trial, during the period that New York reactivated old-data complaints for a year.

21 victims, one priest

The prosecutor, at a press conference, revealed that the investigation of diocese’s records of the state showcased that there are 163 people, among priests and other members of the clergy, accused of sexual abuse or misconduct against children.

Although about 80 defendants have already died. The prosecutor will assign a dozen names for proper criminal prosecution before the authorities. The prosecutor’s office said he gathered more than 100 victims of abuse and spoke directly with 45 victims or their families.

After a year of investigation, the prosecutor maintains that the sexual abuse of infants by members of the four dioceses that constitute the state of Missouri has been an unprecedented scandal. Even more, the church has focused its efforts on protecting priests, ignoring credible abuse reports.

The regular response to reports of abuse by church leaders was to transfer an offending priest, for a short time, to treatment and then reassign him to a new parish. All this, without revealing to any member of the old and new parish the reason for his transfer The victims received, at best, counseling to help in the case of abuse of psychological recovery.

Within the complaints registered by Schmitt, a single priest attacked 21 victims. This fact leads to assuming that the actual number of victims exceeds a hundred.

2,300 documents about priests

The report presented to the American press by the attorney general contains more than 300 pages. Within all these pages, he reveals cases and accusations during the last 70 years. Schmitt will inform the local prosecutor’s offices at least 12 allegations of sexual abuse specific cases.

To obtain these results, a process has been carried out. In this process, more than 2,300 documents about priests, deacons, seminarians, and nuns, have been consulted. The documents were provided by the four Catholic dioceses of Missouri in the last year.

It was also known that the victims of abuse were part of families that were very close to the parishes. Also, the children actively participated in the masses, as altar boys.

The victims themselves struggled on trying to accuse any of the Church members. This was related to the esteem and affect the felt for the priests and bishops, for the special attention these religious men gave to these families.

Considering these facts, the attorney general recommended the dioceses to be more aware of life, the uses, and traditions of the religious orders.

With the new complaints, the country is living a hectic year in accusations of this nature, due to the wave of complaints filed in New York, following the opening of the temporary law that allows the presentation of extemporaneous cases, this year. Even if some of them were committed decades ago. And only in its first week of validity 85 people filed lawsuits against the Catholic church.

The number of child sexual abuse cases in Venezuela increases

Rafael Núñez

11 September, 2019

Children’s and teenagers’ sexual abuse cases have increased in Venezuela. Although, probably, this increase is due to the silence breaking and there are more and more complaints. However, the Habla Foundation argues that not only has abuse increased, but it has mutated and there are now new edges in this regard.

Venezuela in alert

Recently, some institutions in different regions of the country have created headlines because they are involved in the crime of child sexual abuse or a network of child trafficking.

Likewise, people who have children, whose parents have faced the need to emigrate out of the country, under their care have been detained. This situation has been used by criminals to address and attack children.

Lawyers and experts estimate that sexual abuse cases and violence against infants occur more frequently than is made public. Besides the child pornography production, using photographs of children for sale.

It is estimated that there are 1,180 cases registered throughout the national territory for this crime. Out of these numbers, the authorities have been able to respond to 63%.

The Habla Foundation Against Child Sexual Abuse

The foundation argues that the increment in the sexual abuse against children and teenagers cases is related to the emigration situation. Parents leave the country and children are left, under someone else’s protection. Sometimes relatives, sometimes close friends to the family.

The Habla Foundation is an institution formed by professionals from different disciplines who met intending to address child sexual abuse, an enormously silenced topic.

In Venezuela the following crimes occur:

Children and teenager trafficking
Sex slavery
Pedophile porn

Another phenomenon that is currently presented is the use of children as payment of sexual favors in exchange for goods and services.

The Habla Foundation affirms that the regions in which the sexual abuse cases are most concentrated are those with the highest population (Caracas, Zulia, and Miranda). The victims are mostly girls and the age range is defined between 6 and 11 years.

Venezuela also faces legal gaps regarding cybercrimes such as grooming, which is not exemplified within the legal system. On the opposite, in other countries, this crime does exist.

The Habla Foundation emphasizes that children do not lie when they disclose sexual abuse. The child cannot keep it up with a story of this kind, being coherent, if he has not lived it. Moreover, the fact that he can keep the same narrative a week reaffirms that the child tells the truth.

While it is true that, probably, the child cannot discern whether it is good or bad, the kid can determine that something is happening. For this reason, it is important to encourage him or her to communicate everything that happens to him.

How child pornography consumers are detected in Colombia

Rafael Núñez

9 September, 2019

Three people were captured between Bogotá and Bucaramanga for child pornography, a crime whose complaints have increased by leaps and bounds in the last decade, according to authorities’ records. For this reason, organizations such as PaPaz focus on prevention, guiding and informing parents on how to protect children from any kind of abuse through networks.

How to catch a pedophile

The alarm on three alleged pedophiles in Colombia was given by the United States Immigration and Customs Agency, which has agents dedicated exclusively to the detection of crimes against children.

In the suspects’ records, an Internet load of 287 incriminating files, including images and videos, of the explicit sexual content of children was found. The alert arrived in Colombia and the investigators of the Dijín (National Police of Colombia) started to work. They analyzed the information, made the detection in the neighborhoods and, finally, the arrests.

In the corresponding raids, 25 devices were found —including computers, phones, hard drives, and memories— with hundreds of explicit images showing scenes of child abuse, even under 10 years. In total, 2,900 files that reported the crime were detected.

Although the researchers determined that the detainees are consumers of child pornography. They also indicated that going from the attraction to that kind of material to the children’s physical abuse is very simple.

Kit to avoid pedophiles in the web

The PaPaz Network together with the ICBF created an online toolkit so that parents are aware and can prevent and manage the risk of child and teenage sexual abuse in the digital space.

The guide extends from the definition of online sexual abuse to the different kinds of abusers that can be found on the Internet and how they act with children. The guide also shows different ways to recognize them.

Finally, it offers examples of the conversations that abusers can engage with children to manipulate and guide them towards what they want, including using extortion for kids to submit to abuse. One of the most used trends is known as Grooming, or network seduction, a process of which four phases are generally recognized:

Hitch
Fidelity
Seduction
Harassment

Although not all pedophiles behave the same, these specific abusers take advantage of the curiosity that naturally guides children and teenagers to know everything, both in love relationships and those of a sexual nature. They gain their trust and open up to talk about these issues with these people, to the point of getting them isolated.

Maintaining communication with children and control with a good guide of what they review on the Internet will help us to protect them from these online predators.

An international operation against pedophilia delivers at least 27 detainees in Brazil

Rafael Núñez

5 September, 2019

After an international operation in Brazil, 27 people were arrested for their alleged participation in a network that used the Internet for sexual abuse and exploitation of children. This operation was also deployed in the United States, Chile, Paraguay, Panama, Ecuador, and El Salvador.

27 people arrested only in Brazil

Thanks to an operation deployed simultaneously in several Latin American countries, at least in Brazil, 27 people were arrested for their alleged participation in a network that used the Internet for sexual abuse and exploitation of infants. The number of detainees in the rest of the countries involved is still unknown.

During the operation in Brazil —which corresponds to the fifth phase of the Operation Light in childhood against pedophilia— there was a deployment together with the US embassy in this country, in which 656 agents were mobilized in 11 states of Brazil and Six other countries for the execution of 105 orders to capture and seize files with content related to crimes practiced on the Internet of sexual exploitation against children and adolescents.

In the first four phases of this operation, whose execution began in October 2017, 546 people were captured, some of them in Argentina.

In Brazil, these things are considered criminal acts: The possession of child pornography, whose penalty is 1 to 4 years in prison. The distribution of this type of material, with a penalty of 3 to 6 years. And the production of content linked to sexual exploitation, for which 4 to 8 years in prison.

Porn in a hospital computer

During this international operation, the Argentine pediatrician Ricardo Russo was arrested. He is currently awaiting an oral trial. The Garrahan Hospital’s former pediatrician, accused of pedophilia, after his arrest in 2018, was proved that he had child pornography on his personal computer and in his office computer.

During the first stage of the case, 270 child pornography videos were detected, shared by the pediatrician in the eMule distribution network. Seven of the videos show girls between 8 and 12 years old, in explicit sexual acts or takes of their genitals.

The experts found in the doctor’s possession at least 761 photos and two videos with girls and boys between 6 and 12 years old. It is presumed that some photos (9 in total) were taken in the Garrahan Hospital. This statement is thanks to an intelligent device on November 24, 2015. On these pictures, two girls between 6 and 9 years old are seen showing their genitals to the camera during their pediatric consultation.

The day after the arrest, on November 2018, a search was made in the pediatrician’s office. Investigators found in their work computer child pornography produced inside and outside the hospital. Currently, the pediatrician is under house arrest.

His capture was part of Operation Light in Childhood, whose purpose is to go against child pornography networks and pedophiles. In this case, the concern is in the profession that the perpetrator exercised, since he had direct contact with the children, he gained their trust and produced pornographic material in the same consultations.

“Do not Remain Silent”: a new campaign against child abuse

Rafael Núñez

2 September, 2019

An American foundation launched a campaign to encourage victims and everyone to report cases of child abuse, even if they know the attacker.

The campaign Do not Remain Silent, Report it was created by the United Cross Border Foundation, in the USA, the same year all non-prosecutable cases in the state of New York were reported, thus opening a legal window to all victims of abuse.

You should not be Quiet

To promotion this campaign, representatives of police agencies, local and federal legislators discussed how these crimes impact Hispanic families: members of some of these families talked about how the abuse affected their relative, and the responsibility they have to protect their children.

Statistics of the Resource Center against Sexual Violence indicate that one in every four girls and one in every six boys will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday. According to Congressman Lou Correa, the problem happens when parents, out of shame, keep the crimes in secrecy, or children, out of fear, do not tell what happened to someone that can help them.

“Victims ask how they are going to report their uncle or the respected religious leader”, said Congressman Lou Correa.

Right now, the leader of the Church of the Light of World, Nasson Joaquin Garcia, is in prison facing 26 charges of sexual abuse. The Catholic Church has received multimillion demands against religious figures accused of child abuse. On August 15^th, a lawsuit was filed for child abuse against the congregation Jehovah’s Witness.

United Across Border Foundation wants people who were rapped or suffer sexual abuse to report it to the police. The Congressman revealed an open-line phone number available to report cases of child abuse.

“If a persons is sexually abused, report it. Why? Because you will save other victims in the future”, added Correa.

There is a lot to do

The Option Corporation published the book Voices de of a Story. Tales of Intervention in Abuse and Sexual Abuse. The book compiles the experiences of the three boys and three girls’ victims of abuse or sexual abuse.

Moreover, it tells how the parents and therapists intervened in the process of recovery the children went through, detailing the complexity of the process and the achievements done.

The motivation to tell these stories is to see children as people who suffer and have the ability to recover and heal from all the pain they suffered. And also to show that these children, and their families, are more than just victims, they have their own dignity as people.

The number of victims of abuse and sexual abuse is alarming, making it clear that there is a lot to do. A zero tolerance attitude must be taken to face all and any kind of abuse against children, and parents have the obligation to intervene to change this reality and to protect children.

To tackle violence, preventing public policies must be installed so they reach every space and level to allow a cultural change to happen and for children to be recognized as law subjects.