New evidence reportedly aided child pornographers to access material via Bitcoin

An Internet Watch Foundation shared to the Telegraph documented how researchers built a case last month regarding the use of Bitcoins to access a commercial child pornography site.

The UK paper said the report, which was published periodically to inform the public about the ongoing fight to abolish child pornography online, and in the process, child sexual abuse by perpetrators, uncovered that one of the tens of thousands of websites that contained disturbing images of child performing sexual acts all over the world asking payment in Bitcoins.

Because of the anonymity of the virtual currency, it was easy for online criminals to resort to obtain payments using Bitcoin for illegal acts such as gun-for-hire, drug trafficking and sex-related crimes.

In the latest report by the industry and European Commission-backed body, detailed that the website in question shows a new front page with six preview pages of illegal images of children and a join page that asks for payment in Bitcoins. Although viewers of the site will have their transactions recorded in a public ledger, the blockchain protocol, or the measure to record such transactions make it harder for authorities to track specific transactions to a real person because of it, the Telegraph said.

The report by the IWF might have been just the tip of the iceberg, but the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had already shared their fear that Bitcoins could be used by child pornographers in 2012. As criminals often find a way to evade the law, means that offer a cloak of invisibility are often preferred by such individuals, the UK newspaper said. On the other hand, IWF claimed that the using of Bitcoins as a mode of payment for pornographic materials is just a secondary problem, as free file sharing between two parties is still the number one problem that authorities are having a hard time to curb to at least minimize child trafficking.

Tags

European Commission, Internet Watch Foundation, Bitcoin

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