In this post I will be writing down the key notes I was able to dissect from a podcast I listened to by Sam Harris. This is for those of you who do not want to listen to an entire 2.5 hour podcast, but would still like to learn more about the horrifying crimes that are committed against children in the United States and around the world today. This was not an easy podcast to listen to, however I deemed it a necessity for myself to listen to - as I always try to educate myself in anyway I can on the most important issues facing our world today.
In this episode, Sam Harris was speaking with Gabriel J.X. Dance. Gabriel is the deputy investigations editor at the New York Times where we works with a small team, investigating all things technology - from online child sexual abuse imagery, to the companies that trade and sell our data. Gabriel was also the interactive editor for The Guardian, where he was apart of a group of journalists who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for public service, for coverage of widespread secret surveillance by the N.S.A.
On the problem of child pornography, assault and rape in the world today. Talking about children from just days and months old (known as pre verbal stimulus) up until early teens. Child pornography does not mean - 17 year old boys and girls soliciting pictures and videos. This is a systematic epidemic of child sexual abuse. This is a global issue. The following statistics are in relation to the United States only:
100,000 reports of online child sexual assault and rape in 2007.
Then the I Phone is invented:
In 2018 there were 18 million reports of child pornography with 45 million files.
In 2019 there were 17 million reports of child pornography with 70 million files.
In 2017 the reports consisted of 3 million videos and 20 million images.
In 2020 the reports consisted of 41 million videos and 27 million images.
60 million dollars a year is allocated by US government to fight this gigantic issue. Most they have actually spent annually has been 30 million. Even 60 million dollars a year is insignificant compared to what is needed to sufficiently fight against these issues.
The authorities constantly have to triage all cases and only ever really get to investigate the cases involving babies and toddlers.
Facebook messenger is the most popular platform used in the world to trade these images and videos. In March 2019 Facebook started planning to totally encrypt Facebook messenger in the near future. Making it next to impossible to hunt down these monsters.
This has no direct relation to the child pornography epidemic, but it does bring up a tough ethical and moral question for us as a society.
At what point do we relinquish our right to privacy? To aid in the investigation and prosecution of paedophiles and child rapists? I think we would all consent to that. Does it stop there though? Would this initiate a slippery slope? Would invading our privacy to investigate child pornography be the figurative "gateway drug" to invade it for smaller and smaller crimes as the years go on. Could it transition to a point where the government randomly searching through your phones, PC's and even households - become's as normal as being pulled over by the police for an RBT? As you can already see, it is a very tough question that requires a lot of thought and consideration. Although I think we can all agree - something needs to be done.
3-5% of any given population looks at child pornographic images and videos.
The United States are currently working on a bill that will offer 5 billion dollars of funding over a 10 year period. The best thing we can all do right now is to be proactive and educate our children on these very real issues. Children need to understand how dark the online world can get (photos and videos online are permanent). They also need to feel comfortable to be able to talk to their parents about any issues they might face. Parents need to guide their children through these murky waters. Do not let your child become so afraid of getting in trouble, that they keep these dangerous secrets to themselves - in fear that letting you know will create an even worse outcome. Nothing is worse than this and all children should feel safe to tell their parents everything. We are the ones who can protect them.
There is also another invidious sub culture of child pornography forming in the world called “sextortion”. This is where paedophiles will send a picture to another child or teen pretending to be a younger boy. The young girl will then send another picture back. After the first exchange of photos the perpetrator will then unveil themselves as a grown man and proceed to blackmail the child and tell them that if they don’t keep sending pictures, they will post the already sent photo to their Facebook's or send it to their friends and ruin their lives. Often the grown man will insist for the child to get any of their siblings involved, and get them to send pictures as well. This happens a frightening percentage of the time.
Real Paedophilia is an actual genetic issue that arises when humans go through puberty. During this time, their brains do not develop in the way that their bodies do and they remain attracted to children after they become adults. This is still completely unacceptable and remains a heinous crime, due to the fact that children cannot ever consent to any such activity.
Unfortunately there is a much larger population of sick and perverted men who just like getting off to young children. The growing ease to which we can now access pornography can be another variable attributed to the rise in child pornography. This is because some men will constantly look for more and more taboo material to get off to - after exhausting all other sources of porn available.
There are also huge numbers of child sexual assaults and rapes committed on a live stream. The most popular platform for live streams is Zoom. This is because it is much harder, though not impossible, for the authorities to catch these crimes when they are live streamed. This involves children anywhere from 0-14 years old being violently raped by a grown man. There are constant zoom chats being opened around the world, where several men get together and watch these rapes take place and cheer the rapist on whilst they all masturbate. Every member of the chat has to have their own cameras on. They do this to try and negate any potential interference from the police or intelligence agencies.
Ok so that was the end of my notes from this episode of the podcast. As you can see, it is probably the most sickening and depressing topic to listen to or read about. However it is a very real issue that we all face in our communities today. I believe it is better to be informed and prepared - than it is to be ignorant and unaware. There was a lot more information spoken about in this episode that I did not cover, so if you would like to listen to the entire episode - I will link it at the bottom of this post.
