After confirming the authenticity of the Bigo livestreamer with the authorities, The Times searched the Apple and Google app stores for other video chat apps. Reporters identified a sample of more than 80 apps that advertised children before stopping the search. They later contacted Homeland Security Investigations, the government’s main law enforcement group for international exploitation, for comment.
“The number one customer base paying for this abuse is in the United States,” the agent said. “It’s not like they are abused once a day. It’s 50 men getting 50 separate shows. They’ll wake up these kids in the middle of the night to be abused.”
Asked about The Times’s sample of offending apps, Mr. Sainz said a majority had been detected during the company’s standard review process, with an additional 20 taken down after an internal investigation in response to The Times’s findings.
A Florida man, Christopher John Streeter, has been serving life in prison since 2021 after sending roughly $130,000 over a decade to people in the Philippines to direct the rape of children as young as 12.
He paid a premium if the video depicted girls losing their virginity or suffering injuries because of the sexual violence. Court records show Mr. Streeter’s victims were particularly vulnerable “due to poverty and illness.”
Holy shit that’s dark.
The phrase “hurt people hurt people” immediately comes to mind, but I still have no idea what Streeter’s story was, even after reading way more than I would have liked to. But I think yours is an important question for people to be asking, if they ever hope to prevent abuse (as much as could ever be prevented, I guess).
I wish I’d asked for a tl;Dr instead of reading the article.
Tl;Dr: mostly Americans paying people in impoverished countries to abuse and rape their presumed children. From racy photos of small kids to extra money for evident injuries. That’s about as far as I got.
Holy fuck, that article was dark.
Apple is busy fighting DMA in EU and Google is busy fighting the monopoly case in US. What are they supposed to do, fight human rights abuses instead of protecting profits of shareholders?!
Uh, jesus christ, also what the fuck.
Computers were a mistake, and the internet just made it worse.
What’s described in this article is a symptom which is not caused by technical progress but by poverty and greed
Poverty and greed on one side, and fucked up people on both. Someone spending $130,000 over 10 years on this shit is insane from two perspectives…how can you consume this content for one, and secondly, how can you afford all that much money for this?
It doesn’t seem like the consumers are messed up by poverty. And I have no idea what’s causing them to be messed up, and therefore, I have no idea how we stop the consumers from wanting to consume.
Because like you said, as long as there’s a market, this is likely to continue due to the greed and poverty aspects on the “seller’s” side…
Exploitation is fundamental to capitalism. It’s just more obvious in this case.
Because before computers and the internet there was no child abuse? Child abuse is of all ages. And who is more vulnerable to it? The weak and the poor.
Personally, i believe we’ll see more and more of it, as most of society gets poorer and poorer. People will do anything to survive.
This is just an easy way to earn money. And its easier to reach a bigger audience. But i don’t think its gotten worse because we have the internet. Thats just bullshit in my opinion.
But then, i don’t have any kids, so what do i know about abusing your child for money.
