Reflections and Expectations

In the few months since this blog started, a lot has changed.  In November when it started, there were a number of users on Facebook blatantly advertising their interest in child pornography.  Some would even post links and invitations to trade on open walls.  Facebook has since gotten more aggressive about shutting those accounts down, though it may never be possible to completely block predatory users.  A number of concerned citizens have gotten very upset about the situation, and some have even set up a website and sent postcards to Facebook.

There may be some conflict between expectations and reality.  When I started this blog, most of my understanding of child pornography had come from news stories about people getting arrested.  There weren't too many of them in my community, and I was inclined to assume that very few people were interested in child pornography and the ones who did got quickly arrested.  So it was hard to understand why some of the people I saw weren't in jail.

Since then, I've learned that the sheer volume of child pornography on the Internet is staggering, and none of the major social networks are completely free of predators.  There are a number of dedicated law enforcement professionals working hard to combat the problem, but the situation has been compared to drinking out of a fire hose.

Why can't Facebook and other social networks completely block pedophiles and child pornography from their sites?  It turns out to be a much harder technical problem than many activists realize.  It is often impossible for a system to recognize that an image is child pornography and when there are millions of accounts, it's not feasible for a human to manually review all images and videos that users post to a site.  Child pornography traders generally try not to call attention to themselves and are less likely to get reported by other users than spammers or a malicious trolls.  Even when someone who posts child pornography is detected and reported to law enforcement, their country may or may not take action.

A number of concerned citizens are currently demanding that Facebook eliminate child pornography from its site.  It's easy to understand why people are upset and angry about child exploitation, but harder to accept that there's only so much Facebook or any other social network can do about it.  The best case scenario may be that some people get arrested and most of the child pornography traders migrate elsewhere.  But no matter how proactive the social networks are, child pornography is going to continue to be a hard problem.

Independence High School Strikes Again

Last week, a 14-year-old student attending Independence High School in Mississippi ended up in the hospital after having his jaw fractured and some teeth knocked out.  Below are his (redacted) status posts on Facebook.

What happened?  According to a Fox News story, he lost consciousness after receiving corporal punishment from Jerome Martin, his high school's assistant principal.  He also sustained bruises from the paddling.

An anonymous poster commenting on the story said that this was not the first paddling-related injury that had occurred at Independence High School.

So what kinds of things can a student at Independence High School get paddled for?  Let's check the student handbook.  Hmmm... it says that the first office referral for "minor violations" like gum chewing, eating or drinking in class, dress code violations, distracting other students, and violations of hallway rules can result in corporal punishment.

Perhaps it should not be surprising that Tate County School District is already being sued by another student who was paddled at Independence High School.

Missouri Arrest

According to the Columbia Tribune, John Kitch was arrested last week for posting child pornography to Facebook.  Congratulations to Facebook, NCMEC, and the Boone County Cyber Crimes Task Force.

John W. Kitch of 5809 S. Bethel Church Road was arrested yesterday and was being held in the Boone County Jail with bond set at $100,000.

The Boone County Sheriff Department’s Cyber Crimes Task Force began investigating the incident in December after Facebook employees discovered the child pornography and reported it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 

Dexter

Sometimes, we've thought that Facebook needs a law enforcement liaison like Dexter Morgan.

"Sarah Love" displays a sign that says "Keep the CP coming."  We assume that "CP" would stand for "child pornography."

Marcos Teia is back yet again.  Does this guy have any real-life friends?  Somehow, we doubt it.

Sorry, DHS

There was a sleazy-looking site up recently that called itself "Precious Treasure Holiday Company" and appeared to be promoting sex tourism.  I filed a report with NCMEC/Cybertipline and also sent email to the Cleveland Police department.  There was no response, and the site remained online.  So I tried reporting it to the hosting company, which did shut it down.  There's a copy of the PDF they sent my friend with the password protection removed here.

Turns out that the "sex tourism" site was actually a string operation run by DHS.  Perhaps it should have been a tipoff that the site was created with a version of Microsoft FrontPage that appeared to be about 8 years old.  It does seem like it might have been a good idea to communicate with the hosting company ahead of time, though.

Sara Teia

"Sara Teia" popped up last night.  Since "Chad Roberts" featured a couple of entries ago is friends with "Sara," his account should also get bombed by about noon Pacific time today.

Update: neither of them even lasted until 8 AM.

Chad

Chad Roberts isn't the best speller, but he manages to get his point across.  His interests include "Lolita", "Dady's Little Girl" (sic), and "pthc."

He seems to be interested in connecting with like-minded people and exchanging material.  Don't think we'd care to see any detailed information about his anatomy.