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Topic: Darknet's Child Porn and Bitcoin (Read 199 times)

JimboToronto

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You're never too old to think young.

LOL This is so 2011.

Remember when Bitcoin was supposed to be all about drugs and other contraband (such as on SilkRoad), illegal online gambling sites, kiddie porn and "terrorist" funding, at least according to the MSM and established financial industry.

Tell that to Greyscale, Paypal etc now. Grin

Grin

The web started out in the early 1990s as mostly porno. I seem to recall that even in the late 1990s, over 70% of the WWW was still pornography. Times change. Sure, Pornhub and other porn sites still exist but they are the minority now compared to e-commerce, news, and social media sites.

Yes, Bitcoin is still used for criminal activities online due to pseudonymity, just as cash is used offline for criminal activities for the same reason, but it's in such negligible amounts as to not matter that much.

Its no big deal to anyone except those clinging to outdated FUD.

Poker Player

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Yeah, well, cash is vastly used in criminal activities and you never hear on the news that cash is evil or has to be banned or that cash and drugs go together, do you?

News like that doesn't affect those of us who know about bitcoin. At best they can help those who think it's a dark thing to assert their belief, but the masses will look more to extraordinary price increases than to news like this.

danglongbtc

copper member

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As coins has a two side, Bitcoin has got two as well. This along with fueling terrorisms are two really considerable factors where bitcoin can be misused extremely badly. We may think governments are noob but they have to think of all possibilities. That's why we are not seeing regulations very quickly.

robelneo

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There's a lot of porn site even in the web right now not only on the dark web and they accept credit cards, but porn sites have been in existence, even before the creation of Bitcoin, it's just now that they associated it to Bitcoin child porn or any kind of porn did not come because of Bitcoin, they just use Bitcoin to their activities, so it's not right that people should associate it, as it's contributed to the existence of Porn.

moviebuff777

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Activity: 378

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CryptoTalk.Org - Get Paid for every Post!

Remember that any currency can and is used for negative purposes.

The US dollar has been used for sex trafficking, drug sales, extortion, murder, etc.

Banning Bitcoin will not eliminate these kind of crimes.

ecnalubma

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Activity: 1540

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www.Artemis.co

Quote from: stelee68 on January 09, 2020, 02:25:29 AM

I just saw this piece of news today, am wondering would this bring even more negativity to BTC? And what happen to the Bitcoins this scum had amassed?

It won’t impact the BTC market nor drive negativity, but good thing that law enforcement caught them because this kind of people needs to be eradicated in the society. Bitcoin is like money can be subject to evil doings theres really no difference on how its utilise.

Gozie51

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About having negative impact on bitcoin, I'm not thinking that way because bitcoin isn't a fiat currency and can be used for different purpose in transaction. The anonymity of bitcoin already defined it, it purpose is clear and which involves financial freedom in all aspect. You can grow into wealth without limitation with bitcoin, these are the advantage.

el kaka22

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Plus, the problem with defending bitcoin is that, you see news like this and people attack bitcoin as well thinking there was absolutely no child pornography before bitcoin was ever created in 2008, that is not true, even a world without bitcoin would have these types of people and for some reason people think that just because you defended bitcoin in a case like this and said people could have done this some other way if bitcoin didn't exist, they think you are defending the criminal and attack you as well, same happened when this was fresh news on reddit and people attacked everyone who defended bitcoin.

Bitcoin had absolutely no role in this, as you can see people were caught and brought to justice even when bitcoin was used. Same with drug dealers and merchant of deaths and many other illegal activities people use bitcoin for, you don't really get rid of all the crimes if you remove money out of it.

hugeblack

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Bitcoin is not "anonymously," but can be tracked easily. Scammers use these currencies because they are decentralized as governments will need a lot of effort to force you not to spend your currencies.

It will not affect the price because the loudest voices are beginning to think in cryptocurrencies as a way to invest and save money, unlike some who are still promoting these currencies on the basis that they are used in terrorism, money laundering, and dark activities.

figmentofmyass

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Activity: 1652

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Quote from: stelee68 on January 09, 2020, 02:25:29 AM

I just saw this piece of news today, am wondering would this bring even more negativity to BTC? And what happen to the Bitcoins this scum had amassed?

old news---this bust happened last october. any negative effect was felt months ago. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/south-korean-national-and-hundreds-others-charged-worldwide-takedown-largest-darknet-child

the american government will probably auction off the BTC, like they did after the silk road bust and other lesser known seizures.

malevolent

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Quote from: stelee68 on January 09, 2020, 02:25:29 AM

I just saw this piece of news today, am wondering would this bring even more negativity to BTC? And what happen to the Bitcoins this scum had amassed?

Not the first, not the last, good that they got the culprits, but a single site like that being seized (or not) has no effect on how Bitcoin is perceived because most people/buyers/hodlers are already aware of its potentially nefarious applications.

stelee68

member

Activity: 684

Merit: 19

I just saw this piece of news today, am wondering would this bring even more negativity to BTC? And what happen to the Bitcoins this scum had amassed?

23 yr old Korean who ran Darknet child porn site busted, leading to 337 arrests in 38 countries
Son Jong-woo, 23, is accused of running a Darknet website that accepted bitcoin and distributed over 1 million sexually explicit videos involving children

Authorities say they rescued at least 23 minor victims in the US, Britain and Spain who were being actively abused by the site’s users

Law enforcement officials said they had arrested hundreds of people worldwide after knocking out a South Korea-based dark web child pornography site that sold gruesome videos for digital cash.
Officials from the United States, Britain and South Korea
on Wednesday described the network as one of the largest child pornography operations they had encountered to date.

Called Welcome To Video, the website relied on the bitcoin cryptocurrency to sell access to 250,000 videos depicting child sexual abuse, authorities said, including footage of extremely young children being raped.

Its upload page specifically stated: “Do not upload adult porn.”

“Darknet sites that profit from the sexual exploitation of children are among the most vile and reprehensible forms of criminal behaviour,” US Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said.

Officials have rescued at least 23 underage victims in the US, Britain and Spain who were being actively abused by users of the site, the Justice Department said. Many children in the videos have not yet been identified.

The site’s vast library – nearly half of it consisting of images never seen before by law enforcement – is an illustration of what authorities say is an explosion of sexual abuse content online. In a statement, Britain’s National Crime Agency said officials were seeing “increases in severity, scale and complexity”.

Welcome To Video’s operator, a 23-year-old South Korean named Son Jong-woo, and 337 users in 12 different countries, have been charged so far, authorities said.

The child pornography website, which encouraged users to upload videos, included hundreds of thousands of illicit images. File photo: SCMPThe child pornography website, which encouraged users to upload videos, included hundreds of thousands of illicit images. File photo: SCMP
The child pornography website, which encouraged users to upload videos, included hundreds of thousands of illicit images. File photo: SCMP

Law enforcement officials said they had arrested hundreds of people worldwide after knocking out a South Korea-based dark web child pornography site that sold gruesome videos for digital cash.
Officials from the United States
, Britain
and South Korea
on Wednesday described the network as one of the largest child pornography operations they had encountered to date.

Called Welcome To Video, the website relied on the bitcoin cryptocurrency to sell access to 250,000 videos depicting child sexual abuse, authorities said, including footage of extremely young children being raped.

Its upload page specifically stated: “Do not upload adult porn.”

“Darknet sites that profit from the sexual exploitation of children are among the most vile and reprehensible forms of criminal behaviour,” US Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said.

Officials have rescued at least 23 underage victims in the US, Britain and Spain who were being actively abused by users of the site, the Justice Department said. Many children in the videos have not yet been identified.

The site’s vast library – nearly half of it consisting of images never seen before by law enforcement – is an illustration of what authorities say is an explosion of sexual abuse content online. In a statement, Britain’s National Crime Agency said officials were seeing “increases in severity, scale and complexity”.

Welcome To Video’s operator, a 23-year-old South Korean named Son Jong-woo, and 337 users in 12 different countries, have been charged so far, authorities said.

Son, currently serving an 18-month sentence in South Korea, was also indicted on federal charges in Washington.

Several other people charged in the case have already been convicted and are serving prison sentences of up to 15 years, according to the US Justice Department.

Welcome To Video is one of the first websites to monetise child pornography using bitcoin, which allows users to hide their identities during financial transactions.

Users were able to redeem the digital currency in return for “points” that they could spend downloading videos or buying all-you-can watch “VIP” accounts. Points could also be earned by uploading fresh child pornography.

“These are the bottom feeders of the criminal world,” said Don Fort, chief of criminal investigation at the US Internal Revenue Service, which initiated the investigation.

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