The internet is a huge thing. A behemoth beyond the imagination, it’s estimated that just 0.03% of it is indexed by search engines. Imagine that. The internet you know and surf? It’s not even a drop in the ocean. The rest of it? It’s known as ‘The Deep Web‘. Don’t confuse it with ‘The Dark Web’, though. The Dark Web is an encrypted network that only exists between Tor servers. A hidden network. The Deep Web is obscured, but accessible. Just not by Google.
It’s mostly dead data and vast swathes off useless old web pages. But in amongst it all? Illegal material. It’s a haven for child s*x offenders. Pedophiles lurk in the deep web, exchanging information, data, images and video files.
A woman – known only as ‘Pam’ – who works for the website Cracked, went undercover and infiltrated the deep web, spending months observing them, talking to them, gaining their trust and learning from them. She discovered a LOT of very disturbing information indeed…
She discovered an almost ‘mirror’ version of the internet regular people know and use. There are child predator versions of YouTube, Wikipedia, Google, Reddit, Pirate Bay… You name it. Search engines, image downloaders, video streaming, databases, the tech is strong and durable and there’s some real firewalling and protection too. Scariest of all? The sense of ‘community’ that exists, with site admins looking out for each other.
Pam also discovered that they are sub-sections of predators. Some claim to be ‘child lover’s who profess a heartfelt love for children and believe that adult-child relationships are possible and healthy. Others identify simply as ‘child molesters’ and don’t care for the emotional side.
Here’s an example of the kind of post that Pam stumbled across and that worried her so much…
“Hi thestruggle, [smiley face]
You have to learn to disassociate your thinking of pedophilia with hurting or abusing children. You have been brought up to, not talk to strangers etc when you was a child because your parents who think pedos hurt children passed that idea on to you & now your mind is confused …
The truth is, some people do hurt children but the majority of pedophiles (paedophile is latin for child lover — paed=child & phile=love) love children and would not hurt them or harm them in any way.”
It’s a disturbing world. Here’s more on what what discovered by ‘Pam’:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siWIg9sqR4o
