Some facts about internet pr0n.

- internet pr0n generates about 57 billion dollars yearly

- there are about 4 million websites with over 370 million pages

- 100,000 child pr0n sites make 2.5 billion dollars a year
- these are a crime in progress

- there are between 50,000 and 100,000 child victims yearly

- fewer than 400 distribution sites have been nabbed.

How is it distributed? Pr0n peddlers know technology well.

Those advances include encryption, steganography (hiding information in images or other files), software designed to eliminate evidence and defeat attempts at data retrieval, highly portable storage devices such as keychain drives and memory-equipped watches, on-line libraries, advanced cellphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), freenets, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels, and botnets (networks of infected computers used to distribute or store porn, unbeknownst to their owners).

How are we contributing to distribution?

Det. Sgt. Gillespie says more than half a million child porn images are circulating, representing between 50,000 and 100,000 different victims. A growing part of the problem stems from “bot” (short for robot) software planted by some computer viruses to turn machines into electronic “zombies” that can be controlled remotely by hackers. The machines usually appear to operate normally to their users, but they could be surreptitiously relaying child-porn-related traffic or storing illegal images to keep criminals safe from detection.

According to RCMP Corporal Jacques Boucher, a member of the Atlantic Tech Crime Unit, criminals are using thousands of infected computers around the world gathered into zombie armies called botnets. They can be used for anything from extortion and hiding the source of massive e-mail spamming operations, to trafficking in child porn.

“Why should Mr. Pornographer buy a computer from Dell when he can use yours?” asks Ray Freeman, vice-president of business development for PresiNet Systems, a five-year-old Victoria company providing managed security services to small and mid-sized businesses.

Canada has a sad and sorry history with the sexual exploitation of children and women.

We computer owners can help.
Use virus and spyware protection and a firewall on your PC. Don’t let your machine be a zombie.
You don’t need a technican or the ability to speak geek. Here are 7 easy tips to help keep your computer from becoming a zombie.

And when you find a child pr0n site online you can now report it safely and immediately.
Cybertip.ca was set up by Child Find Manitoba last week.

Law enforcement on three continents have set up a virtual task force site. Concerns by citizens and companies that they will be arrested or charged for finding these sites in their systems or on their machines are valid. However, the distributors are so organized and so big, and the problem is so overwhelming the world wide web that that is the makers and key distributors Canada’s cyber-cops are aiming for.

Addition: If you have looked at online pr0n you know the shame and the lure.
It is a huge problem for people that attend and run churches. There are sites that can help.