From WikiLeaks

February 26, 2009

10 years inside the international child porn industry with our confidential source.

By Mr. X (translation from original article in German).

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is not really proper to send anonymous letters. Given the contents of this letter, everyone will understand my wish for anonymity. Nevertheless, I hope that you will read this letter completely and think about it.

In recent months, I have followed closely the debate on the topic of filtering of child pornography in Germany. There have been various suggestions about how the Internet should be censored and filtered - not only by the Federal Government (Mrs. von der Leyen and Mr. Schaeuble) but also by federal countries (such as in Lower Saxony from Mr Schünemann).

Discussions on this topic have lasted for months and have triggered a strong polemic which is also reflected in various forums. For the first time ever, I will present the "flip side" of the issue and give you an insight from the other side. I will describe controversial and possibly - from today's perspective - immoral things and technologies.

Before we begin, I want to say a few words about the legalities and myself: I will be as accurate as possible to describe the background and my involvement in this (if any) so that my statements can be verified (we know it would be illegal to give links to files or email accounts). I have included an excerpt from PCPro from the year 2007 on the Landslide case. I recommend everyone to read this report. A few words about myself: I am German, but have lived about 20 years abroad, have a background in the telecommunications sector and later a second training in the field of education. In my current country there are no laws relating to surfing, viewing, downloading and saving any type of files. For this reason, I know very precisely what is happening in the Internet because I am fully able to follow what happens. Also, I am in an unfavourable position: earlier, I was for a while strongly involved in the field of children models. From this time period I know of hundreds of pedophiles and have virtual contact with designers, programmers and operators of the sites that operate today's CP [Child Pornography]. I have even got to know personally some of the girls (and their families) in the famous CP sets.

In order to systematically describe the situation, I decided to do this in a theme-oriented fashion:

Small reflection on the history of the industry

In the Middle Ages, when the life expectancy was still significantly lower, the puberty began later than today and adolescents in the age range 12-18 years were set up for marriage. This changed increasingly. Naked, erotically depicted boys and girls have always been in the center of the art. As photography became popular at the end of the 18th Century, also erotic act descriptions with children and young people were made. At the end of the 60s there was a magazine called Lolita, produced by the Danish company "Color Climax", that had sex between children and between children and adults as the subject.

This magazine was sold everywhere - sometimes from under the counter. Only in the 80s the magazine was discontinued due to new laws set. From the 90s, the notion of child pornography expanded ever further. In the 70s and 80s, nudist magazines such as "Young and Free," "Sunshine Friends", etc. were still perfectly legal to buy. Even artists such as David Hamilton, Jock Sturges and Sally Mann published images of naked children and adolescents, which was at the time was considered an art - even though the first voices reported this as child pornography to blame. The photographer Jacques Bourboulon got special attention because of the very erotic pictures of Eva Ionescu he made.

As the Internet age in the '90s began, pictures were initially exchanged via specific NNTP newsgroups. Specifically zealous fathers began even to abuse their own children and to share the pictures with others. This was nothing commercial - it was on grounds of seeking approval - these people wanted to be the biggest and got plenty of encouragement from lurkers (people that use the material in newsgroups without contributing anything themselves). Between 1996 and 1999 the first commercial offerings of nude act pitures of children and adolescents emerged. Some of these sites had quite an artistic approach, while others lacked in this regard completely. In addition to NNTP, forums emerged as a social meeting place and as a means to exchange plenty of files and links. From 2002 LS Studios was founded - a group of Ukrainian businessmen and professional photographers. Within 2 years, LS Studios had 1500 children and young people who posed naked - with the consent of their parents. The models were even recruited through TV and newspaper ads. The photo quality and professionalism exceeded anything previously published. LS Studios published over half a million images and hundreds of videos on dozens of websites. In 2004, under the pressure of and with the help of the FBI, LS Studios was closed. The prosecution was discontinued and there was no one convicted. Since 2003 was also the heyday of a man from St. Petersburg who was known under the pseudonym Fly, Hook and Scorp. This time the pics were in much worse quality and much harder. He has a lot of models approximately between 11 and 14 years of age in front of the camera masturbating and pleased with the dildo. These images were being published in - no longer existing - sites like MyLola, Hotlols, Goldenlols, etc. In specific cases the girl even had sexual intercourse in front of a recording videocamera. What is special about this production was that he himself started very young. Being a son of a high Russian official, he had shortage of nothing. When he was still a minor he falsified documents to claim that he was an adult and with his male and female friends as models, he began the business. First he started with provocative but miserable nude act pictures that he produced for other operators (such as Pedolola, etc.) and then proceeded to defloration in front of the camera. Only at the end of 2008 he gave up the business. No, not because the police put a stop but because someone stole his money and everyone (he, the photographer and his models) lost interest as a result - since for all of them it was only a matter of money.

The CP producer from St. Petersburg was the one who in the last year flooded the Internet with masturbation pictures and videos. I have no problems finding contacts to his models. I will only say this: there is an interesting Naturist Club in St. Petersburg called Holynature (reachable under holynature.ru). Interestingly, there are pictures of young people in Holynature.ru sometimes posing with models who are also seen in the harsh CP photos and videos ... So as I am able to successfully investigate this, the authorities should also be cabable of the same ... However, I speak many languages and have an extraordinarily good education, in particular in the technical field.

At this point I have to mention the so-called Child and Non Nude Teen Modeling Sites that have been existing since the 90s. These are websites that market images and videos of children or youngsters. The quality of the images varies hugely and ranges from Webcam quality to absolute professional quality. Initially, these sites were usually run by parents and later came more and more professional operators into the picture. The pictures range, depending on the operators, from pictures in conservative clothes to very provocative poses with legs spread and erotic lingerie. About the Non Nude scene it is known that much happened behind closed doors. Many customers make offers for so-called Custom shootings - in other words pictures by request. Customers wrote scenarios, poses, and sometimes even sent clothes to them so that they can produce images specifically for this customer - at a good price. In most cases such requests also included the desire for naked pictures in unique poses - however true sexual abuse or rape was an absolute exception.

Differing legal positions

Child pornography - the word is used everywhere and nonetheless it is totally unclear what it actually describes. This is where the problem begins: there are totally different legal situations. What is considered CP in one place can be in another place perfectly legal. Even the legal description of CHILD is not regulated. In a country you are a child until you are 18 years old, in another the limit is 16 years, or as in Germany one is legally a child until one is 14 years old, after that he/she is called a young minor until he/she becomes an adult. In practice this leads to constant conflicts. Law is by no means uniform. A few years ago there were these kinds of problems with the magazine "Seventeen" in the Netherlands. When the Internet emerged, the company produced entirely legal pornography with young people aged 16. As long as this was sold in the Netherlands, it was no problem. But with the advent of the Internet Seventeen wanted to sell the pictures and videos on the internet as well. It was not long until it hit the headlines everywhere for "child pornography", especially in the USA. This became a huge political pressure on the Dutch authorities. A very similar problem seems to be, soon, with Switzerland, where this minor protection ends at the age of 16. Not to mention countries such as Japan where the age limit in some places is 13 years (the same applies in Spain). There are countries where there is no minimum age but one is entitled to have sex when married (this is often the case in Muslim countries). So here is again the question: what is child pornography? The answer may vary.

The business model

Authorities and the media write sensational reports about the proportions, the alleged threat and trillions of transactions made by the child porn industry. I will give you for the first time very accurate figures on retail sales. These figures are very accurate and I have got them from the people responsible for the bills. But first a few details about the course and consequences.

As the real Internet business emerged in the late 90s, it was very easy to enter into this business. I remember the people of Site-Key.com from St. Petersburg that did much business in 2000. They had a Delaware Corporation in the United States, a Visa and MasterCard merchant account with Card Service International in California, and they ran all the payments via the U.S. through a gateway link from Linkpoint. But there were not only Site-Key but still a lot of other vendors. One of them provided services particularly for the distributors of hardcore child pornography (CP was mostly scanned images of Lolita magazines of the 70s, nudism, nudist pictures doctored to show them pornographic, as well as pictures of fathers abusing their daughters that they had posted in newsgroups or forums). This second company (IWest) had their headquarters in Israel and did their billing through Israeli banks which were aware of the scheme (until Visa withdrew the license from some Israeli banks, some have even settled for CCBill for whom it did not matter what was paid for, the main focus being that money was moving. Some Russian / Israeli citizens were never particularly choosy...). There was no problem to bill for any kind images, and the hosting of nude images was not a particular problem for these companies - let alone for the Non Nude Models. At this time almost 100% of the websites were hosted in the United States because it was the only place where it was affordable. The Web sites have generated such traffic, that a human being can hardly imagine how big the interest really is. I have the 2001 statistics of a website containing naked pictures of children and adolescents. During the month of June 2001, a total of 200 million visits to the site took place (this is not page views, but unique visitors but on a daily scale - it is likely that a good part of visitors this month visited the site on many days and have been counted multiple times. My estimate is that there were about 15 million unique visitors during this month). The ratio between visitors and buyers, however, is very small. The same site in June 2001 a turnover of approximately U.S. $ 60,000 made at a price of about $ 30 which is approximately 2000 customers. Even Web sites that still exist, such as Met-Art.com bought productions in 2000 with 11-14 year old girls, and everything was billed through the very serious CCBill (this series are no longer at Met-Art Journal).

After 11 September 2001, the United States was becoming increasingly unattractive for foreigners because there were so many bureucratic hurdles that it was no longer worthwhile. Billing-companies oriented themselves incresingly towards Eastern Europe and found partners such as the Alfabank that took care of the necessary Merchant contracts for a price. It must be said that groups from Belarus - specialized for years on the Internet billings - have built up systems, which can be used to invoice all this stuff (perfect money washing facilities). As LS models came onto the market, they have developed their own credit card payment system.LS was in 2003-2004 the world's biggest studio providers of photographs and videos from erotica with children and young people including close-ups of genitals and breasts (but no sex) - typical for Softcore pornography. The girls were from all walks of life, participated completely voluntarily, and usually with the blessing of the parents to take photographs. The most popular girls have been posing repeatedly for years (some even until 2007, long after the collapse of LS Studios) and everyone who has seen these pictures can see that these girls like to be in the pictures and have had fun during the recordings (it is finally time time that someone says this as it really is, even if it seems to disturb some). LS studios had countless sites such as LS Land, Fantasy LS, LS Magazine, etc., and sold to the best studios around 1500 LS entrances on the day for about 40 USD. That makes a daily turnover of approximately USD 60,000 and a monthly turnover of approximately USD 1.8 million, annual sales of approximately 21.6 million USD. Mind you, this is the total turnover. For the payment of the 1500 models, personnel, the various sites, their own studios to create clothes and backgrounds, shares of the Bank and the crazy traffic costs and the server accounted for about 1 to 1.3 million monthly costs. The operator got the profit, about half a million per month. SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Ukrainian_child_pornography_raids

The money could be perfectly washed through Riga or Vilnius. Today mostly English offshore LTD's are used with bank accounts in offshore banks such as the Griffon Bank (an example). Until today, many operators have their accounts at banks such as Parex under false names to which they receive money transfers and from which they can withdraw money by credit card at any ATM. The commercial supply of child pornography is very limited. There are tens of thousands of child pornographic websites. Many of these sites serve as advertising and lead to the same commercial site. There are a plethora of free sites that always post the same pictures, very often from the '70s or known sets that perverted fathers have done with their children and then published. No sign of an uncomprehensibly large business, let alone of alleged trillion USD of revenues.

Also in the field of Non Nude Modeling there were sensational reports of sales by millions. Again, I had direct access behind the scenes. One of the largest operators in 2004 was AMS or AModelShop. These websites were from Salt Lake City operated by ... a TV-celebrity called Matthew Duhamel with his server administrator Charles Graner that had a hosting company and carried out the operations and billings for the whole Non Nude Modeling Webmaster. Duhamel produced images of some models himself but he bought most productions all over the world. They were mostly girls from 9 to 13 years in sexy, erotic clothes such as Pumps, High Heels, Hotpants, etc. In case the website of Sierra Model (which ultimately brought down the case Duhamel) was a pubescent girl whose mother made and offered very provocative pictures on a site. End users also have ordered specific sets of the daughter directly from the mother where practically nude pictures were taken in exciting poses. With the pictures they made good money and even the daughter was so thrilled that she started skipping school. Thus, the ball got rolling: the school alerted the authorities, etc. At that time AMS was one of the largest shops in the area of Non Nude Modeling, and provocative images with the most customers. The turnover was around 35'000-40'000 USD per month, and generated a monthly profit of approximately 20,000 USD.

Approx. 2003 and especially 2004, the business became more difficult to operate. In Germany jugendschutz.net and the Telemedia Act were created to protect children and adolescents. The first countries such as Denmark began to censor sites, hosting providers were immediately alerted and servers closed. Domain Registrars began to simply close domains - when the contents of a website was objectionable - despite the fact that the domain was paid for properly (which I believe to be an outrageous breach of the law because the domain registrar closed domains on its sole discretion and without judicial order and proper proof even when they did not contain any illegal material - one of the worst is GoDaddy.com). Many countries have introduced laws which made such sites illegal. The result was that more and more such sites went into the underground.

Back in 2000 in Russia there was a forum called DARKMASTERS (earlier darkmasters.com, then darkmasters.info) where all parties involved in the porn shops did business with each other. You have to treat this as a marketplace where anyone could offer his/her services. In the course of that time all those involved in the Russian Internet business got there together. It does not matter what kind of business one was involed in, everything was welcome. Of adult porn to animal and child porn, everything was sold and marketed on this platform. Everyone offered their services: photographers, webmasters, programmers, designers and job applicants. Certain groups such as the so-called Lolita webmasters were ostracized by the Adult Webmasters - there were conflicts. Since pornography is illegal in Russia and all Eastern Bloc countries, it played no role in whether you are a only ittle bit illegal or a little bit more. Over the years, a combination of individual skills took place. Due to the increasing problems caused by censorship, hosting, billing and marketing, the various groups became more specialized and began working together. The best programmers and server administrators from Eastern Europe came together, mixed with the best document falsifiers, Carders (credit card fraud specialist), spammers and hackers who wrote and distributed the rootkits, viruses and trojans for years. And for special cases, the Russian organized crime was called to help in exceptional cases where one wanted the authorities to be more active to push an unwanted competitor out of the way, or to kill an idiot who couldn't keep their mouth shut. Even if the reality between webmasters was sometimes very dangerous, I was not aware of any violence against children and adolescents.

During the years this combination of skills has resulted in the most ingenious schemes I have ever seen in my life. It is beyond the skills of BKA, FBI, and certainly politicians who don't even know of such systems, let alone understand them. It is outrageous naiveté with which politicians speak of things of which they do not have the slightest clue. All the more frightening, however, is how much they use child pornography as a tool to write headlines and create populist slogans and as a means to justify more monitoring even though it is clear that the system established will very quickly be used for very different purposes than (unsuccessful) child porn filtering. Among the operators, there are two types: those mostly from Western Europe and North America are catched relatively quickly because they don't have the slightest clue. These are the people who appear in big headlines when they are caught. But there are, however, other varieties comprising the best-trained server administrators, programmers and hackers. There is a direct collaboration between programmers who write the special Trojans and rootkits, hackers who command the Bot Nets and infected computers (zombies) as well as spammers who send their mail via the Bot Nets of the hacker.

The technology of today

An essential part of today's commercial child pornography is now hosted in Germany and distributed from Germany. If this is for you a shock, then I will explain how this works, and the authorities can do absolutely nothing except for the stupid ideas people muck:

Today's schemes are technologically very demanding and extremely complex. It starts with the renting of computer servers in several countries. First the Carders are active to obtain the credit cards and client identities wrongfully. These data are then passed to the falsifiers who manufacture wonderful official documents so that they can be used to identify oneself. These identities and credit card infos are then sold as credit card kits to operators. There is still an alternative where no credit card is needed: in the U.S. one can buy so-called Visa or MasterCard gift cards. However, these with a certain amount of money charged Visa or MasterCard cards usually only usable in the U.S.. Since this anonymous gift cards to buy, these are used to over the Internet with fake identities to pay. Using a false identity and well-functioning credit card servers are then rented and domains purchased as an existing, unsuspecting person. Most of the time an ID is required and in that case they will simply send a forged document. There is yet another alternative: a payment system called WebMoney (webmoney.ru) that is in Eastern Europe as widespread as PayPal in Western Europe. Again, accounts are opened with false identities. Then the business is very simple in Eastern Europe: one buys domains and rents servers via WebMoney and uses it to pay.

As soon as the server is available, a qualified server admin connects to it via a chain of servers in various countries with the help of SSH on the new server. Today complete partitions are encrypted with TrueCrypt and all of the operating system logs are turned off. Because people consider the servers in Germany very reliable, fast and inexpensive, these are usually configured as HIDDEN CONTENT SERVERS. In other words, all the illegal files such as pictures, videos, etc. are uploaded on these servers - naturally via various proxies (and since you are still wondering what these proxies can be - I'll explain that later). These servers are using firewalls, completely sealed and made inaccessible except by a few servers all over the world - so-called PROXY SERVERs or FORWARD SERVERs. If the server is shut down or Someone logs in from the console, the TrueCrypt partition is unmounted. Just as was done on the content servers, logs are turned off and TrueCrypt is installed on the so-called proxy servers or forward servers. The Russians have developed very clever software that can be used as a proxy server (in addition to the possibilities of SSL tunneling and IP Forwarding). These proxy servers accept incoming connections from the retail customers and route them to the content Servers in Germany - COMPLETELY ANONYMOUSLY AND UNIDENTIFIABLY. The communication link can even be configured to be encrypted. Result: the server in Germany ATTRACTS NO ATTENTION AND STAYS COMPLETELY ANONYMOUS because its IP is not used by anyone except for the proxy server that uses it to route the traffic back and forth through a tunnel - using similar technology as is used with large enterprise VPNs. I stress that these proxy servers are everywhere in the world and only consume a lot of traffic, have no special demands, and above all are completely empty.

Networks of servers around the world are also used at the DNS level. The DNS has many special features: the refresh times have a TTL (Time To Live) of approximately 10 minutes, the entries usually have multiple IP entries in the round robin procedure at each request and rotate the visitor to any of the forward proxy servers. But what is special are the different zones of the DNS linked with extensive GeoIP databases ... Way, there are pedophiles in authorities and hosting providers, allowing the Russian server administrators access to valuable information about IP blocks etc. that can be used in conjuction with the DNS. Each one who has little technical knowledge will understabd the importance and implications of this... But what I have to report to you is much more significant than this, and maybe they will finally understand to what extent the public is cheated by the greedy politicians who CANNOT DO ANYTHING against child pornography but use it as a means to justify total monitoring.

But how, specifically, child pornography is sold? As the operators cannot resort to door to door knocking and market their sites this way, they had to work out other ways to sell. There used to be links in forums, toplist, advertisements in newsgroups, etc. Today, the answer is SPAM. The revenue from the child porn business are divided into 40-60% for the payment processor and the bank (percentage rate will depend on how hard the material is), 20% of the operator and 20% of the marketers (in this case, spammers). Spammers use millions of email addresses of interested people - the lists of earlier payment processors they have. But hackers have also obtained huge client lists of large companies and sold the email addresses to spammers.In order to send spam trojan-infected (zombie) computers are used. But zombie computers have yet another use: it will be used in a targeted fashion to steal identities. They even use the computer of the user whose identity is stolen to conduct credible transactions such as purchase of domains, etc. But that is not everything: the installed Trojans are sometimes used as a SOCKS proxy to upload CP. The Russians have even worked out a schema to use infected computer as a network combing these infected computers (each computer would be part of a huge, redundant cluster) as a kind of huge, distributed and remote servers can be (a kind of Freenet Project, however, by using infected computers as the nodes). I want to make one thing clear: if you have an email address, there is a possibility that there is child pornography on your computer because you have received CP advertising. And if your computer is not 100% safe against Trojans, viruses and rootkits, there is the possibility that your computer is part of the vast child pornography network.

Same as for the content servers, logging is turned off on the proxy and forwarding servers, residing in Truecrypt containers. The Russians have developed very clever software for proxy servers (in addition to the possibility of SSL tunneling and IP Forwarding). This proxy accepts incoming connections from the customers which are then tunneled to the Content Server in Germany - completely anonymous and unidentifiable. The link can even be configured for encryption. Result: the server in Germany NEVER APPEARS PUBLICALLY AND STAYS completely anonymously because he never appears with its IP except to the proxy servers that are configured to send the traffic back and forth like through a tunnel - using similar technology like large enterprise VPNs. I stress that this proxy servers are installed everywhere in the world and only consume a lot of traffic, have no special demands, and above all are completely unused.

At the DNS level there also is a network of servers around the world. The DNS has many special features: the refresh times have a TTL (Time To Live) of approximately 10 minutes, the entries usually have multiple IP entries in a round robin procedure, and at each request rotates the visitor to any of the forward proxy server. But the real specials are the different zones of the DNS with extensive GeoIP databases linked to it ... Also, there are pedophiles in authorities and hosting providers, allowing the Russians server administrators access to valuable information about IP blocks that was built into the DNS database. For everyone with a little technical knowledge it is extremely important to understand the implications of this... But what I will have to report is much more significant than this, and maybe they will finally say to what extent the public is being twitted and cheated by the greedy politicians against child pornography that can not do anything about it, but make into the means to an end, justifying State surveillance.

But how, specifically, is child pornography sold? As the operator cant go knocking door to door and these sites cannot be readily sold, other means had to beworked out ways to sell. There used to be links in forums, toplists, advertisements in newsgroups, etc. Today, the answer is SPAM. The revenue from the child porn business are divided into 40-60% of the payment processor and the bank (percentage rate will depend on our hard the material is), 20% of the operator and 20% of the known candidates (in this case, spammers). Spammers dispose of millions of email addresses of interested people - the lists are compiled also of earlier payment processings. But hackers have also had a huge client list of large companies of interest and sold the email addresses to spammers. In order to send spam, computers infected by trojans (zombie) are used. But zombie computers have yet another use: whole identities are targetedly stolen by hackers. They even use the computer of the user with the stolen identity to move credibility in respect to the perpetration of criminal transactions such as purchase of domains, etc. But that is not everything: the installed Trojans are sometimes used for his computer as a SOCKS proxy to use for upload of child pornography. The Russians have even worked out how to use schemes of infected computer in a network and can combine these computers (each computer would be part of a huge, redundant cluster) that can be used as kind of a huge, distributed and remote server network (a kind of Freenet Project, however, by making use o the infected computers through Trojans nodes). I want to make one thing clear: if they have an email address, there is a possibility that there is child pornography on the computer because the owner possess the child pornography from the advertising provider, maybe in his spam directory. And if your computer is not 100% safe against Trojans, viruses and rootkits, there is the possibility that your computer is part of the vast child pornography network.

In recent years I have watched as authorities - due to a lack of knowledge (and motivation) - and judges (due to ignorant shirtsigtedness) have wrongly suspected and very often also convicted thousands of people. There were fathers destroyed, families ruined, and people event committed suicide. Masses of accused people have even admitted guilt (although innocent) in order to avoid public humiliation in a court and additional damages resulting from it. One of the first big story was the alias of Landslide Operation Ore case. Allegedly 70,000 users had purchased child pornography from Landslide. The only ones that were really pleased were the Russians. Landslide had nothing to do with child pornography. But because Landslide developed a portal where also money was transferred, the Russian operators had opened accounts frequently and then tried to sell child pornography under these accounts. The manager of Landslide was extremely naive and did not have enough control over the accounts, payment processing and fraud. He did not notice that several credit cards were charged more than once, that client IPs did not match with the issuing bank, etc. - the CEO of Landslide was himself the victim of a gigantic fraud. The fact is that the CP operators had made a deal with the Russian Carders who got their credit cards and identities from the U.S. mafia (more specific information is given in the accompanying article from PC Pro). Under these CP accounts thousands of scammed and stolen (with the help of a trojan) credit cards were used so they brought the company Landslide insane revenues. But they were all stolen credit cards. Since it was already too late for Landslide and for thousands of innocent people, this meant the end of family life, loss of employment and even the end of any hope that led to a subsequent suicide. Much worse is that the U.S. police manipulated the website of Landslide AFTERWARDS (this is best described in PCPro).

Where and how abuse happens

I have pretty much faced everything what is happening on the Internet regarding this theme. But the gruesome images of crying, raped and even tortured children do not come from commercial producers. They come not from third parties but from bestial fathers and mothers of the children that do this to them. Most are fathers with incestuous tendencies who meet in forums and chats. One begins to make and distribute images, perhaps initially only depicting the naked child - Then, the masturbating child, then the child being raped, and perhaps the child in a forced Sadomaso game. Each parent goes always a little further because he/she always has to offer a little more than the predecessor. In other words, the violent abuse takes place almost always in the family. By publication of these pictures they end up in the Internet. Again the Russians collect the material and publish it on commercial websites.

I see and make a clear distinction between violent and voluntary even though it may sound outrageous. But one who has ever seen the images, can quickly distinguish them. Ever since child pornography has been exchanged on the Internet, pictures that were the cruelest have originated from people that belong to the family circle. They publish the images out of self-promotion and totally free - it is simply an "outbidding" for the atrocities one can do to their own child. The Russians fish pretty much everything on the internet and then publish those images along with images from the 70s into commercial sites. The productions were made by third parties for commercial purposes (such as the LS Studios pictures, etc.) are always made voluntarily. You see the kids grinning a big fun in front of the camera. I know some of these children are now teenagers or have even reached the age of majority. Many regret that they no longer can be models and did not understand why they suddenly no longer were photographed. Even tougher pictures from St. Petersburg show girls in their first voluntary sexual experimentation. Also there you can see that for the girls it is a game and that they had fun. I know that in most cases the mother was informed and that she allowed the daughter to participate. Nobody has suffered, no one has been forced and these were free decisions - why cannot the society simply accept this fact? Even money was not always the driving force. There were certainly girls from very good homes that had no shortage of money. But they had a passion for voyeurism, naked posing, etc. at a very young age (which you can see today with the phenomenon of "Sexting" where children and young people share very provocative pictures with each other, according to reports up to 20% of young people make and share this kind of pictures)

It is first and foremost the media that writes sensational headlines about child pornography and sexual abuse. The most qualified clinical psychotherapists know that the public fuss is often much worse than any actual experience (children and young people are practically conditioned to be victims even though they have very different feelings about the experience). Approx. 15-20% of my female acquaintances had first sexual experiences at age 11 to 13 years, many of them with a much older partner. By law, this was absolutely illegal but by her feelings it was absolutely correct and remained in the best memories. But if such a story was presented in public, then a victim would be fabricated even though the "victim" does not perceive herself as such (but he/she MUST feel like a victim to live up to social norms - which is what the psyche is really made to do). A now-deceased Belgian psychoanalyst has also analyzed the phenomenon of so-called White marches and reactions of the public on child abuse. He came to very interesting results. Could it be that each of us harbours an unconscious, dark and unbearable desire for the child that one can "unload" by expressing and projecting anger towards a pedophile monster? Why is the public so eager to know EVERYTHING about cases of child abuse? The public leeches every perverse detail of such a story and the sensational media makes an excellent business. The most insidious of the whole subject of child pornography is the public discussion about things the speaker only has ideas about but has never seen. Each sensationalist presentation is allowed and there are no limits to it, and these presentations can be abused to achieve various objectives. It is not acceptable to tackle the issue with facts without getting charged for a criminal offense in Germany. It is like the ultimate indictment where no defense is allowed. It can be used for everything and every purpose.

In the name of the child

For years, I hear and read how kids supposedly are so immature. I have worked close to children and youth for many years and found that children and young people know much better what they want (or not) as is ascribed to them. The entire discussion concerning [criminal?] accountability is a testimony to this. In Germany, this is at 14 years. When one wants to blame children and young people, then they are never too young to be held responsible. When it comes to the ability to make sexual decisions, then they are never old enough. This is an incredible impudence and discrimination in the political debate. When a child is old enough to accept responsibility for an offense, then it is also old enough to accept responsibility for his feelings and his body. What a child needs is a strong protection against violence. And usually it comes not from strangers and pedophiles but from parents that are - despite the prohibition of corporal punishment - quick to use the belt [to beat the child]. The real figure of beaten and physically abused children in Germany is much higher than that of any victims of sexual abuse. By the way, you have to really think about the word abuse. The term abuse cannot exist without the notion of "proper use". Is there a sexual "proper use" of children and adolescents?

Child protection has become a real industry. There are numerous organizations dedicated to the protection of the child - their administration, programs and staff must be funded - which means many job opportunities. I am particularly worried about the relationships between large and politically important global organizations such as the National Center for Missing & Exploited Kids and fundamentalist-totalitarian-oriented religious groups. If you visit their website (www.missingkids.com) there is a CYBERTIPLINE. There is an opportunity to select a REPORTING CATEGORY. Under "Unsolicited Obscene Material Sent to a Child", there is a link to www.obscenitycrimes.org. This organization is, in turn, operated by Morality in Media, Inc. and is an essential partner of the Center. I quote here a few of the interesting arguments that this organization wants to spread and enforce (below, I have collected arguments from various pages in www.obscenitycrimes.org):

The police must do God's work (ie. the police becomes the executive branch of the Bible)

Pornography leads to violence and must be banned

Pornography leads to homosexuality and child abuse

Sexuality in marriage must be regulated (oral, anal and masturbation are against nature and are punishable)

Homosexuality should be criminalized

Adultery must be punishable

Adulterers are predetermined to abuse children

I stop here because otherwise I would burst with anger and bloodthirst. I noticed that these are the same religious fundamentalists that welcomed cruel punishment on children with rods, whips, etc. based on Bible verses such as Hebra 12:6-7 or 1 Book of Kings 12:13-14 and 12:18. The Western world hardly has to worry about the Talibans but more about Christian fundamentalists crawling in through the back door of "Child protection".

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Kids (NCMEC) is almost globally conducting strong, secret lobbying activities and has a major influence on virtually all European governments, including the EU and in particular the UK. This organization is becoming more and more important and is strongly pushing a political agenda in Europe, although the organization is located in the U.S. There are interesting articles on the topic which come up when you search for NCMEC in Google. You will soon notice the immense power this organization has received - even outside the USA. I am not afraid of terrorists but of the child protection lobby. This is much more ominous, insidious, and is directly linked to the interests of Christian religious fundamentalists. The NCMEC is, moreover, also intertwined with the American broadcaster NBC which has broadcasted the series "To Catch a Predator" - a prime-time show where alleged child abusers are caught in front of the camera. In the show the police officers impersonate children and suggest meetings with the adults...

But that's not all. A few months ago, I stumbled upon a new web site, hosted at DreamHost Web Hosting California. It showed suggestive images of Masha Allen, a Russian girl adopted by an American pedophile. Over the years, she was not only his daughter but also his lover. The photos made rounds around the globe. The father was finally identified and jailed and the girl was readopted by a woman from Georgia. Masha Allen has massively greedy lawyers. They have left up this website with suggestive pictures of Masha. They offer the option to purchase a subscription to get access to more pictures ... Whoever was lured by this stunt, not only received an immediate visit by the police but also was threatened by a civil action in the American style - in other words faced multi-million claims so that the person has to spend rest of their life paying to the lawyers of Masha Allen who charge enourmous fees and give the rest to Masha Allen. A nice business model, isn't it?

But it gets worse: the New York state prosecutor Cuomo has started negotiations with the private company Media Defender (Anti-P2P Piracy Solutions) in California to look for people that exchange child pornography via the P2P networks. The aim, therefore, is to give the task of evidence collection and denunciation of Internet users to a company in the private sector. According to U.S. law, the company itself is not allowed to search specifically for child pornography, but this does not bother the U.S. prosecutor - ultimately it is for a good cause, isn't it? Media Defender is also a company with strong connections to film and music industry - it is the same company that pushed the conviction of children downloading music illegally on the Internet.

SOURCE: http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2007/09/mediadefender_police

The United States is a respected democracy that over the years has permitted the use of torture - all this for a good cause and for the protection of the society. A prison society is growing quickly and is operated by the private sector. Approximately 2% of the population is serving a sentence, most of them in a prison. Private prison operators are even traded on the stock market and they are known to be very profitable and sustainable as more and more prisons are built and more and more people are put into prison (the amount of people in prison increases each year by 4%). "Producing" convicted criminals HAS BECOME A HIGHLY PROFITABLE INDUSTRY and more and more criminals have to be produced so that the money keeps coming. There are credible rumors of bribes from operators of the prison to the judges and prosecutors - they pay premiums for so-called new convictions that result in a prison stay. So you don't have to be so picky in any investigation, let alone employ qualified officers - this way there is always sufficient supply of people to put in prison - AND ESPECIALLY YOU HAVE TO CRIMINALIZE A LOT OF THINGS. Now, at this point, the reader should pause and do a little reflection on their part, and let this go once more through their brain. Beautiful, great democracy. SOURCE: http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN0727506220071007

And because everything is pushed in the name of protecting the child, these children and young people feel better. Or do they? Oh, I forgot to mention something: the laws for the protection of children and adolescents are now used against them in many countries. Exactly, you did not misread that. This happens especially in the Ango-Saxian countries like the USA and the UK. Children who discover sexuality are arrested, convicted as pedophiles (!). Young lovers send pictures in which they wear nothing but underwear or even less - the so-called SEXTING. If the images end up in the public domain, this usually becomes disastrous for the youngsters. There are countless documented cases where both young people were convicted because of CHILD PORNOGRAPHY. There are also relations of minors with adults: a 17-year-old girl with a 18-year-old boy, for example. One such case is known to me from Ohio, where a 15-year-old girl was arrested and put in the prison was because she refused to testify against her 18-year-old boyfriend so that he could be convicted as a child abuser (because the parents of the girls have denounced him - he did not fit the taste of Mom and Dad. In one comment the parents said it is right that their daughter is sitting in prison because she did not want to charge his boyfriend). The laws allegedly made for protection of children and adolescents are increasingly used to criminalize and control the sexuality of children and adolescents - with the prosecution used even against the children and young people themselves. Interestingly, we come again to my earlier observation: children and young people are good enough to be punished, even convicted. But sexually they are totally immature and dumb. SOURCE: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28679588/

In Great Britain the situation is not much better. Based on the theory that abuse victims become abusers themselves, the British government launched a database to identify all victims with the purpose of putting such persons under monitoring because they are under general suspicion, as former victims of abuse sometimes become abusers. The victims are now suspects themselves and are monitored as potential criminals. Since the end of 2008 there is (again) a new database with the purpose of collecting information about every child in the UK and their development in order to observe signs of abuse. I wonder just how long it will take until one of these databases leaks somewhere, or even gets lost in traffic - as has already happened with other UK databases. Should such a database fall into the hands of the Russians, they would again have solid content for new websites.

The reality of filtering and censorship

Based on my descriptions so far it should be clear to anyone sensible reading this that filtering and censorship make absolutely no sense. The Russians are well-informed about countries such as Denmark and Sweden and know which sites are on the blacklists and how the filtering systems work. A few weeks ago, a strictly secret blocking list appeared on the Internet at: http://scusiblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/dkfichse_15012009txt.sorted

It is the blacklist of 15 January 2009 from Denmark. As you can see, these lists are very confidential ... If you are looking for child pornography is, you should send the Danish police a thank-you letter for the hot tips. But what is immediately obvious is that this list does not contain only illegal child pornography sites. I have not, of course, checked all domains. Most of these have been defunct since times immemorial (but they are still listed - this will surely make next owner of the domain happy if the domain is ever purchased again). It is worth noting that some sites with flat-chested adult models are blocked. Even some gay sites are listed, or sites that have adult models that look young (even sites participating in a proof-of-age program and operating within the EU). I wonder, therefore, on what legal basis these adult sites with verifiably adult (but young-looking) models are put on the blocklist and even more how the discrimination of these models as adults is justified. Since it is not justifiable, only mendacious arguments can be used: A job for the anti-constitutional Mrs. von der Leyen, Mr. Schaeuble or Schünemann. They use the tax money for this purpose and to pay themselves big fat pensions in the future.

As I have written so far, the whole promotion of child pornography is done via spam (or publisheded list of domains blocked by the police :-). The spam mails sometimes also come with images. Even if you do not read the emails and everything ends up in junk folders there is still the possibility that child pornography images are saved on the hard drive. A different situation is when the computer has become infected and is a zombie - then all doors are, so to speak, open and the computer can even be used for the active dissemination of child pornography. Those who buy child pornography find links in the spam ads - most of them will lead to portals. On these portals, but also in forums and newsgroups, there will be advertisements for security solutions that enable you to evade tracing AND FILTERING. There are commercial offerings for foreign, uncensored DNS servers but also for VPN solutions (eg www.strongvpn.com). In these VPN solutions an encrypted tunnel is established between the client and a server without logs, and under a false identity somewhere in the world - the connection may even go through more countries. Even if the (impossible) suggestion of Mr. Schünemann was implemented, there would be absolutely simple methods to circumvent it. Since Server 2008 Microsoft came out, there is virtualization. There are commercial offers where no child pornography is actually bought but a virtual workstation is a leased on which there is a great gift: a workstation full of videos and files ... The connection can be established very quietly via Windows Remote Desktop or VNC. No files are trasmitted between the computer of the customer and the server - only keyboard commands and screen content - usually in encrypted form and without the slightest trace about what you have viewed. Since the screen of a computer located e.g. in Russia can be displayed on a PC in germany, the customer will automatically bypass any filtering, censorship and surveillance by the German government. Well, the distributors of child pornography can even calmly sell virtual machines - against which Visa and MasterCard certainly will have nothing ... When the customer then connects to the virtual computer, he finds a nice file that is nothing else than a TrueCrypt Container for which he also received the password to open it. The container can also calmly sit on his home computer after transfer and because nobody knows what it is, he remains just a user like millions of others. The Russians have been producing complete solutions for about 4 years. In these case the business will not run dry. But the German government will spend the money of taxpayers and the economy for the irrational and expensive systems.

If you still haven't noticed: Technology is not the solution to child pornography. No filters, no censorship and no total monitoring can change this.

Effective prevention measures

To find prevention measures you should finally throw moralities out of the window and think about this question: WHY IS CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CONSUMED?

I have 10 years of experience with the topic, I have talked with incredibly many people about it. What comes out is that about 1% of men have strong pedophile (pre-puberty children) or ephebophile (pubertal children and adolescents) fantasies that do not allowed for a normal life because they have clear sexual preferences. Many report to me being even sexually disgusted by adults even if they are otherwise socially fully integrated. Moreover, up to 29% men (depends on the culture) have occasional fantasies about young people. These fantasies never come up and the people usually lead a normal, inconspicuous life. It is not entirely coincidental that films like "Confessions of a Sixth Form Girl" [original: "Schulmaedchenreport"], etc. were extremely successful ...

The sexuality belongs to the psychological basic needs according to Maslow. I don't consider pedophilia and especially ephebophilia a disease but simply a sexual preference - this is controversial because my opinion is still shared by only a few scientists (but that was a few decades ago the case with homosexuality - whose prosecution did not have an effect, did it? ). However, I have the advantage to know of the intimate lives of many pedophiles.Many of them have come into conflict with the law (which is almost inevitable with the current legal situation) and were sentenced to compulsory treatment. I AM NOT AWARE OF A SINGLE CASE WHERE A PEDOPHILE WAS HEALED AS A RESULT OF THERAPY (and I can assure you that I know of incredibly many). The only thing that has been achieved for some pedophiles is a postponement of the target age to which they felt attracted. Pedophiles often report that they attach their interest in younger children to stressful situations. Good stress management causes the pedophile's target age to go up a few years. Just as earlier with homosexuals, many have integrated into society, married, discreetly, and have sometimes even children they love and never abuse. Most live a deceptive double life, suffering from permanent fear for one's existence that their sexual orientation could be detected. If discovered, they could lose everything in an instant. They suffer more or less severe depression because they have hide it from the society to survive. Instincts always win, sooner or later. Whether you travel to Cambodia, have a CP archive or have an affair with the daughter of the neighbors: it is constantly a Russian roulette which a pedophile can hardly escape.

The question we should ask is: what kind of a decent life can the society provide for the pedophiles? It is a mistake to believe that pedophiles are monsters. If one is heterosexual, he does not fall over every woman. One is also not in love in every woman. A gay man does not rape every man he sees on the street. It is similar for the pedophiles, they do not feel attracted by every child and even find children sometimes antipathic. The media is world-class in undifferentiating reports. People like Dutroux are considered pedophiles even though I see him rather as a dangerous psychopath who targets not only children but also young women. Representatives of child protection organizations want to make us believe that pedophiles have a power problem with adult women. Although this part is quite possible (that pedophiles unconsciously fear adults and children are safe and therefore preferred), I've found out with a large number of pedophiles that they have an absolute REVULSION against adult women. They have also often a collection-, enforcement- or control-related obsessions. Then there are those with a Lolita complex, a strong attraction to virginity and innocence (often happens when people have been brought up religiously strict with strong repression of sexuality, they idealize chastity and usually have a violent, authoritarian mother).

So, what kind of life options does the society provide for a pedophile? The ostracism, stigma and castration for life with permanent GPS monitoring? Perhaps a new Ausschwitz with gas chambers should be built for the pedophiles to get rid of them? It is a little brutal, but death syringe soundst much better. Perhaps even life-long detention in prison, or encouragement of psychiatry at the Swiss Dignitas [?] just to report a dignified failure at a high price tag [very unsure of translation]? Today, there are no decent living perspectives for a pedophile. To lead a happy life pedophiles CAN AND MUST BE CRIMINALS.

If you want to reduce abuse and child pornography, you must start at the right place: major funds must finally be put in the research flow in order to offer for pedophiles a hope for a decent life (among others in the preference structure education [?] whose understanding is essential for any sexual preference). There must be radical work on stigma. No one will show his true sexual orientation if this can lead to the loss of what he loves and possibly possesses in life. Under such circumstances it is rather a laborious double life to live until he one day perhaps makes a mistake and everything goes public. Pedophiles have been reported to me that they have visited doctors to ask for advice. Some were thrown away and never again asked to appear to their family doctor that had known them for years. I do not know how these doctors and psychotherapists understand the Hippocratic oath but it clearly shows how strong the stigma is. Media and authorities do much to targetedly support this stigma and to tear this thema in a populistic fashion. In Anglo-Saxian countries sexual offenders are only permitted to live in certain areas that are always getting smaller. Many cannot even live in an apartment because of the laws. And thanks to publicly searchable databases, when they live somewhere the entire neighborhood is soon filled with posters and warnings about these sinners so he is automatically ostracized and no longer can make connections there. Often, he will then fall victim to violence, "group lynching trials", that often does not reach the true offenders... [assumed to mean the consumers of CP, not the bad parents who produce the worst stuff]

Pedophiles come from all social strata, there are workers, unemployed people, clerks, technicians, teachers, headmasters, lawyers, doctors, artists and judges. They are found mostly in sectors with children and young people where they usually do unobtrusively excellent work. It is wrong to accept that pedophilia and Ephebophilie are only issuses of men. Anyone who has seen child pornography will be surprised how often there are other adult females in the pictures. Mothers can also have incestuous affairs pedophile inclinations as much as women may have (many times mothers have sadistic feelings towards their daughters, especially when they come into puberty - this also has something to do with the emergence of a rival and jealousy). Many years ago I knew a case of a remedial teacher which left her husband because they she had a lesbian relationship with a girl from the home. Later, the girl moved in to the remedial teacher's home and they lived together. No one can control which sexual preference one develops and sexuality is a basic drive of human beings. The question is: if you are heterosexual, how long would it[?] endure without sexuality? How would you shape your sexuality if no woman would let you to touch them? You have to ask the same question concerning pedophiles and think about how a pedophile can lead a happy and decent life.

The criminalization of child pornography is one of the most stupid decisions ever made - for various reasons. First, the costs of prosecution for possession of child pornography are enormous for the state and often very little results are achieved and after all nothing can be changed about the actual fact that the crime has been committed. A friend's home was searched and had all his computers and 4500 video cassettes - on which he for years had recorded movies - taken. It took 2 years to work through them all and in the process a huge sum of taxpayers' money was spent FOR ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Because he had recorded TV movies on the video tapes! Germany is very rich, making expensive proceedings for child pornography. Put those who write horror stories and one-sided descriptions in the jail so that it becomes really expensive to the taxpayer [?]. Germany has enough money, so let's just do it.

Secondly, it is justified by the argument that viewing of a child porn picture harms the child. How? The actual exploitation has happened a long time ago!

Thirdly, by now it should be crystal clear to everyone that child pornography is the perfect weapon to ruin the lives of people (even those who are not pedophiles). Many innocent people already saw their existence get destroyed (one case among many is Landslide). I hope that soon these cases are brought before the European Court for Human Rights in Strasbourg and that the governments should be held accountable and financially bleed for the filth they have caused. Many have child pornography on their computers without knowing it (because of spam, or Trojans used to make the computer a proxy). CP is the perfect means to cause huge problems and social ostracism to an unpleasant person. And the government (and the child protection lobby) will use it as THE argument to decieve a totally unsuspecting population (and even parliamentarians). You have seen how the terrorism-argument has been misused. You can at least collect evidence and come up with counterarguments, etc. against terrorism. But child pornography is THE WEAPON against which one cannot give counter-arguments because it is totally illegal to do research in order to form a clear opinion. It can thus lead to wrongdoings, limit our civil rights and be used to push total monitoring of citizens. I suspect very strongly that the relevant government officials have at last dropped the penny. Child pornography can not really be stopped or the producers and operators cannot really be identified. So we filter it away so that the general population believes that something has been done. In the process the monitoring technology is set up and soon used for other purposes. Then it does not take much longer until it used for the prosecution of copyright violations and for controlling critical views. We can also send some love to Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Bundesbahn. To me China is soon more secret than Germany.

The possession of child pornography should be decriminalized, and only its production and distribution should remain a criminal offense. Physical violence against a person, no matter what age, should be drastically and severely punished. From puberty onwards, should a person be allowed to make voluntary decisions about their body and to determine freely with whom they want to have a voluntary sexual relationship. Drawings, stories and other art products should never have been criminalized because the mind is free, and such products have not harmed indivudal humans (I know of a case from New Zealand where in a house search a diary was found where the person described their sexual fantasies - among them were even fantasies with minors, and he was ultimately convicted for writing these descriptions). The whole discussion about clothed model children on the Internet is totally superfluous. Many people, mostly poor families, had an additional revenue source through such Web sites and it provided considerable help against poverty. Where, I ask kindly, is the difference whether a pedophile masturbates now in front of a computer, in front of an Otto catalog [a well-known German clothing store] or thinking about a girl on the beach? That certainly sounds very immoral to everyone but if one wants to understand the essence of the problem, you have to finally take on the reality. Everything else is window dressing and stupid chatter that leads to nothing and completely misses the target. Why do today's children and teenagers take sexy pictures, sometimes completely naked - even keenly? Nobody forced them! They don't earn money from it. It is exactly what I learned during my talks with Eastern European girls involved in such productions: many had financial interests. However, many did so but also because was fun and financial aspects had no bearing. And many operators simply gave cameras to girls. They made the photos without the influence of adults. The pictures were then published by the operator and the money divided. There were no victims but partners, even if the partners were minors.

Instead of spending more and more money in irrational censorship, filtering and witch-hunts for possession of child pornography, this money could be invested in programs that aim to provide a better future and, above all, a better quality of life and the necessary education for poor children and young people. This would already eliminate the families whose motivation is financial. There will, however, always be the models posing provocatively as well as a sympathetic families that allow them to do this. In brief: voluntarily involved children and young people who are having fun - in my opinion, these are not victims. Those who are violently forced into things they do not want are the real victims. From puberty onwards, young people should be allowed to decide about their own feelings and their bodies.

This whole discussion about morality and sexuality is an incredibly stupid thing to which religions have contributed significantly ... One hears different theories from various sources. What is actually harmful for children and adolescents? In the U.S., the sight of a naked human is allegedly harmful to the poor child. Well, in Germany, the Bravo magazine has for decades reprinted pictures of naked girls and boys for the purpose of sexual enlightenment. In Germany, there should therefore be a lot of injured children and adolescents. When I was child, we went with the school to collect waste paper. Here we found the most exciting magazines in the wastepaper... I know very well how this has awakened my interest. On that account, I was really deeply shocked as a child when I had to go to the butcher and saw how animals were handled and killed. Until today, this remains a traumatic experience for me. Today more and more violence is shown freely and at the same time people are lobbying about sexual self-control. It is allowed for everyone to form an opinion about the situation. But it is hardly possible to form an objective view because the access to information is prohibited by the Government. I hope that in this sense I have - though perhaps sometimes with immoral statements - shown another side that so far has remainied strictly confidential. I wish very strongly that I have given enough food for thought. Without radical rethinking nothing will change.



With kind regards, Mr. X

Another note: The PCPro article mentioned in the text is available at http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/74690/operation-ore-exposed.html The English-language Wikipedia has a page on the case at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ore

Thanks to Mr. X for covering these documents, and http://hack.fi/ for principle translation to English.

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