The Dark Side of the Internet: Exploring Child Exploitation and Its Online Presence.
With the rise of technology, the exploitation of children has also increased, and we need to start talking about it.
It's true. The internet has become a breeding ground for a new wave of darkness, and at the forefront of this wave is child exploitation. The rampant and unbelievable spread of child pornography across social media platforms and other online forums is a cause for great concern. It is frightening to see how quickly and rapidly child pornography is spreading online, and there is much more to the problem than what meets the eye.
Without wasting time, Let's get straight into data and actual statistics.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there were over 29.3 million reports of children being exploited in 2021 alone, averaging over 563,000 reports every single week and 80,000 reports every single day. These numbers should be a wake-up call, especially for those who have younger siblings or children of their own. In the same year, a study showed that the adult entertainment industry is not just being consumed by adults anymore, with 84% of males and 57% of females between the ages of 14 to 18 reporting exposure to pornography in the USA alone. The pervasiveness of pornography is perverting and sexualizing the young and impressionable minds of our youth, creating a lens through which other human beings are viewed and interacted with, making it easier to commit sexually aggressive acts towards them.
The negative effects of pornography consumption are further supported by meta-analysis studies that show a correlation between pornography use and sexual aggression. The illegal supply of child pornography has also increased during the COVID-19 pandemic as school closures have left children vulnerable to grooming and exploitation by predators online. We cannot allow the internet to be a place where children's innocence is stripped away and their lives are destroyed.
Why do people crave certain types of content? Is it something innate, or is there an external force that drives their addiction? Unfortunately, the internet provides ample evidence that it's the latter.
One example of this is the popular app TikTok, which creates an environment where young children and teenagers can record themselves following provocative and explicit dancing trends. These trends are often used to make themselves look cool and gain social validation. TikTok even automatically applies beauty filters, which conform to Eurocentric beauty standards and make users appear more attractive.
This skewed and unattainable version of beauty is further perpetuated by an algorithm that rates a user's face and assigns them a score on a beauty scale. Videos with a higher score are more likely to receive views and gain social validation. The app has also been criticized for automatically applying a minor beauty filter to all videos without the user's consent, leading to a distorted and unrealistic representation of themselves.
Despite these criticisms, TikTok continues to generate revenue by making people lust over synthetic beauty. Other apps are then forced to follow suit, creating a vicious cycle of hypersexualization and unrealistic beauty standards. Young teens and children are often the most vulnerable to these effects, as they are still developing their self-image and are highly influenced by the media they consume.
The proliferation of child sexual exploitation material (CSEM) is a serious issue that is not only facilitated by illegal activities but also by the production and distribution of legal adult content. This kind of filth is being introduced to the minds of millions around the world, and what's worse is that they're getting hooked on even more explicit content. So where are they getting it from? It's the Porn companies, producing content with key terms like "teen," "young," and "tiny" in the titles to replicate the illegal CP videos. The actors in these videos are portraying children and young adults, with some even wearing school-girl outfits to sell the effect that they're actual children. In reality, they're over 18 and chosen specifically for their small and skinny stature to perpetuate the illusion of a young child. This is deeply disturbing and needs to be addressed immediately.
This marketing tactic is particularly insidious because it blurs the line between legal and illegal content, making it more difficult for law enforcement to identify and prosecute those involved in the production and distribution of CSEM. It also feeds into the insatiable appetite for increasingly explicit and taboo content that can lead individuals down a dangerous path towards illegal activities.
This is a disturbing loophole in which an 18-year-old legal girl is made to appear illegal in order to satisfy the desires of online predators. It's a toxic method of generating views, but it's effective. When done on a large scale, it's clear why rates of incest are rising while tags like "stepbrother" and "stepsister" are promoted by algorithms. The consumers of pornography have been conditioned to believe that these interactions are normal and that they can bring their fantasies to life. The same concept applies to child pornography. As mainstream pornography becomes more normalized, child pornography seems less taboo. This is especially true when legal adult actors are involved in these videos. Experts in Internet child pornography cases explain that constant exposure to child pornography images and videos actually desensitizes viewers, leading them to desire more sexually violent and younger victims to satisfy their growing desires. This "hardcore" tag, which once represented something like uncensored pornography, now often shows actual violence and aggression. This sparks an interest or "kink" for minors who watch these videos, and it wouldn't be far-fetched to say that it could even spark an interest in viewing violent abuse for younger performers. Studies show that pornography videos featuring younger performers are more likely to be more aggressive than those featuring older performers. This shows that the directors know exactly who they're catering to and which agenda they're trying to push. Watching legal pornography may start off innocently enough, but it can quickly spiral into an interest in younger and younger performers, as these key terms are ranked at the top of search results. This type of consumption destroys communities at every level, starting with individuals who are trained to indulge in lust whenever they feel the desire for it. Countless studies show that pornography consumption destroys marriages, with roughly 60% of divorce attorneys citing pornography as a significant factor in their clients' divorces. When humans get a taste of a drug, they want more and more of it in more extreme forms. The same is true for pornography. Softcore pornography viewed on apps like TikTok and Netflix can lead to a demand for real pornography or even child pornography. The craving for pornography becomes increasingly hardcore and violent, and this becomes the new baseline for satisfying dopamine cravings. This creates a self-sustaining market that thrives on supply and demand, much like drug addiction. The term "chasing the dragon" used in drug addiction is analogous to how the brain works in pornography addiction because the craving for the drug increases with each use.
Around 80% of all child pornography (CP) content found in the possession of individuals depicts children aged 12 or younger. Reports from sex offender treatment programs show that 76% of prisoners arrested for CP possession have admitted to committing sexual abuse against children. The link between CP usage and child molestation is evident in the fact that watching such material can lead to the desire to commit such crimes, as individuals may fantasize themselves as the ones performing the act, particularly with the rise of point-of-view (POV) videos. This desire can escalate to the point of actualizing it, as videos can only satisfy the urge for so long before the individual seeks the real thing.
Child Pornography is banned online, but creeps are creating accounts and servers on multiple social media platforms, such as Twitter, Reddit, and Discord, to promote CP and profit from it using cryptocurrency. Crypto is preferred as it is harder to trace than other forms of online currency, and tumbling the coins can make the transaction untraceable. To avoid getting banned, CP users use coded language, such as using words that start with "c" and end with "p," like "cheese pizza" or "Club Penguin cheese pizza," and more. They also use emojis like the "map" emoji, which represents "Minor Attracted Person." Peer-to-peer transfer networks like Live While You Are, BitTorrent, Telegram, and Mega, are used to buy and transfer CP. Mega, in particular, is popular for its encrypted file sharing, which makes it hard for authorities to seize illegal data as it is stored in the cloud and can only be opened with a password.
The ability of AI to differentiate between a child and an adult is not always accurate, and even as human beings, we sometimes struggle to discern the age of a person. There have been instances where an 18-year-old may look like a 15-year-old, and vice versa. Additionally, it is difficult to determine if a video was consensual or not, especially considering the vast amount of content that needs to be monitored. As a result, one solution that was implemented was the deletion of all unverified content on a certain website, which unfortunately did not solve the problem entirely. Despite numerous attempts, it seems that controlling the flow of CP on social media platforms is an incredibly challenging task. Researchers suggest that education and law enforcement training may help prevent sexual abuse of children, but this is not a practical solution for every country. Removing all Porn content from social media platforms might be the only feasible solution to entirely eliminate CP on those platforms. However, it is worth noting that this solution does not solve the problem entirely, as individuals can still access such content through the dark web or other unregulated websites. The reality is that there is no perfect solution, and we must stop acting like this is an easy problem to solve.
The adverse impacts that a child may experience from accessing adult material online, including videos of a highly explicit nature, are a matter of concern. Parents are understandably upset that such material is available to their children, both online and now in libraries. They take measures such as using parental controls to prevent their kids from accessing such content online, but it is alarming that even schools are not safe from such hypersexualized material. The books in question contain illustrations and explicit terms that may be too extreme for even adults, let alone children. Some of the positions and acts described are highly dangerous and may even lead to death or severe medical complications. The books even have a cheat sheet section at the end that lists erotic terms and definitions that some adults may not have heard of before. It is concerning that such material is being passed off as sexual education for children.
The idea that everyone should be able to live the way they want, as long as they don't hurt anyone else or themselves, is flawed.
If we follow this logic, then smoking and drinking should also be banned, as they can harm both the person doing it and those around them. The advice in this book is contradictory and could eventually lead to self-harm. It is not up to anyone to dictate what freedoms another person can or cannot have, but when those freedoms can lead to harm, it becomes a problem.
Furthermore, teaching kids to be promiscuous and have multiple sexual partners is not only irresponsible but also dangerous. Not everyone is honest, open, and safe when it comes to sexual practices, and this can lead to a host of physical and mental health issues.
There is also the issue of consent. Kids who are taught to be promiscuous and experiment sexually may not fully understand the concept of consent, leading to potential harm to themselves and others. It is essential to teach kids about safe sex practices, respect for themselves and others, and the importance of communication in any sexual relationship. But promoting promiscuity and sexual experimentation is not the way to go about it.
"If I desire to consume alcohol on occasion, who has the right to impede me? It is my decision, and I want to proceed with it. Suppose we utilize the original harm principle established by Jon Stewart Mill. In that case, we must acknowledge that certain actions, such as cheating, are only wrong if the partner discovers it. This is because the only way cheating can inflict harm is if the partner becomes heartbroken after discovering it. Now we are delving into the shortcomings that lack coherence. For example, if a brother and sister wish to engage in a specific activity, and it does not harm themselves or others, then, according to your principles, it is acceptable. However, your principles are entirely subjective, making it impossible to make objective claims about morality. This argument is flawed because everyone's morality varies across the world. Moreover, some materials in the school library could potentially be considered inappropriate for children."
The quote "porn is fine and fun but it is in no way real" is a problematic message to be conveying to children. It is not only illegal to solicit and show erotic material to kids under 18, but also goes against the trust that parents put in schools to provide a safe learning environment for their children. It's not reasonable to expect parents to constantly monitor their children's online activity, and that's why schools should be doing more to protect them. Children should not have access to pornography, and this shouldn't even be up for debate. It's not just about books with drawings teaching them dangerous and risky acts, but also about grooming them and normalizing harmful behavior. Allowing children to believe that watching porn is fun and harmless is completely irresponsible.
With this, It's absolutely infuriating! The only way we can truly put an end to this repulsive crime is by increasing societal awareness and education, as well as enforcing strict legal frameworks with full force. We have a collective responsibility to eradicate this issue by establishing a culture that absolutely abhors any form of sexual exploitation of children. It's high time we take action and equip our children with the knowledge and awareness they need to combat this atrocity and provide them with a safe environment where they can confidently seek help without the fear of being shamed or ostracized. Only then can we even hope to make a significant impact towards putting an end to this heinous crime and protecting the most innocent and helpless among us?
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References
https://iamlucid.com/ - Special thanks to Lucid and his research.