Is cryptocurrency helping spread child sexual abuse?

[Nicholson55]

Pedophiles and criminals engaged in child cybersex are proliferating in the Philippines as the cybersex industry becomes more sophisticated and profitable despite numerous crackdowns both by local and foreign authorities, according to a report by Channel News Asia.

Citing a study by the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography and the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children titled Cryptocurrency and the BlockChain, it said that encrypted payment systems involving cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin are driving the proliferation of live-streaming child sexual abuse. On average, live abuse or when a user instructs the children to perform sexual acts, cost around 10 Bitcoins when it was still worth $10,000, but a live-stream view-only would cost one Bitcoin.

What are people's thoughts on this? Do you believe it is helping the industry or is it just incidental?

Source of the stats : https://cryptovest.com/news/cryptocurrency-helping-spread-sexual-child-abuse-in-the-philippines/

[stompix]

I never understand how they count the impact and the numbers in such cases while all the way I don't see any large scale operation against it.
Everyone is talking about thousands of children exploited (and I'm sure the numbers are real) but nobody is talking about thousands of slave traders and pedophiles getting jailed.

Probably this is the most demoralizing job in the universe, gathering data over data about abuses and see nothing is done...

Second, cryptos does not especially help these kind of criminals, moreover  i recently red ex PaYPal employee who told that a lot of PayPal accounts are used for this kind of nasty staff ( most likely with fake Ids).

No offense but you know this resembles the Soviet propaganda?
Every time somebody criticizes bitcoin for something....but, but, but what about the banks!!!!

Yeah, pedophiles use cryptos, bestiality sites use crypto, darknets use crypto...just live with the fact that cryptos are not just pink bears and unicorns.

[mk4]

While those sickos can definitely take advantage of the pseudo-anonymous characteristic of cryptocurrencies, are cryptocurrencies actually helping spread child sexual abuse through cybersex, etc? I don't think so. It does probably make it easier for them to collect payments, but without cryptocurrencies, would they stop? I don't think so. They're just going to look for another alternative.

See, no matter what technology, criminals and sickos can always take advantage of them. Cars can be used for getaway vehicles for thieves. Mobile phones can be used to detonate bombs and such. Guns for murdering. The list goes on.

[bosta20]

Pedophiles and criminals engaged in child cybersex are proliferating in the Philippines as the cybersex industry becomes more sophisticated and profitable despite numerous crackdowns both by local and foreign authorities, according to a report by Channel News Asia.

Citing a study by the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography and the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children titled Cryptocurrency and the BlockChain, it said that encrypted payment systems involving cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin are driving the proliferation of live-streaming child sexual abuse. On average, live abuse or when a user instructs the children to perform sexual acts, cost around 10 Bitcoins when it was still worth $10,000, but a live-stream view-only would cost one Bitcoin.

What are people's thoughts on this? Do you believe it is helping the industry or is it just incidental?

Source of the stats : https://cryptovest.com/news/cryptocurrency-helping-spread-sexual-child-abuse-in-the-philippines/

No ...i don't think so...fiat currencies especially the USD is the most widely money use in sexual abuse...

[Kakmakr]

Ask yourself this question - The Internet is the primary source for this kind of material, so should we shutdown the Internet to stop Child pornography being send over it? Nope, you use the same technology to catch these perverts. <They will leave traces and that would serve as evidence to prosecute these people>

If they raid their houses and they find the wallets from where this money was send, then these people will go to jail. The wallet and Bitcoin address is solid proof that this person is involved in these criminal acts. 

[cramcram21]

Everything has it's up's and down's crypto is being used by some criminals online because of it's anonymity,
But that doesn't mean that it is the reason why the rate increase.
We couldn't really say that it is the reason because thw internet have a huge impact in our life .

[charlotte04]

Pedophiles and criminals engaged in child cybersex are proliferating in the Philippines as the cybersex industry becomes more sophisticated and profitable despite numerous crackdowns both by local and foreign authorities, according to a report by Channel News Asia.

Citing a study by the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography and the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children titled Cryptocurrency and the BlockChain, it said that encrypted payment systems involving cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin are driving the proliferation of live-streaming child sexual abuse. On average, live abuse or when a user instructs the children to perform sexual acts, cost around 10 Bitcoins when it was still worth $10,000, but a live-stream view-only would cost one Bitcoin.

What are people's thoughts on this? Do you believe it is helping the industry or is it just incidental?

Source of the stats : https://cryptovest.com/news/cryptocurrency-helping-spread-sexual-child-abuse-in-the-philippines/

Even though crypto is still not here there are still a lot of options on how to spread sexual abuse to children using FIAT and other things that are valuable.

[eternalgloom]

I really wouldn't say that this is because of Bitcoin, there are many many other means that these pedo-networks use to send money to each other.
Look at it from this angle, now every one of those transactions is recorded on the blockchain.

If even one of their operations gets busted, they have the tools of connecting all their transactions and they have solid evidence recorded on the blockchain that they can use to prove complicit-ness.
Let them use Bitcoin, all their transactions will be recorded for eternity, it'll come back to bite them in the ass.

[LTU_btc]

I don't think that cryptocurrencies helping to spread child sexual abuse. I think it's not directly related. Bitcoin is just a tool, same as other currencies like dollars or euros. It's same like people saying that Bitcoin helps to support terrorism or you can buy drugs with it. But you can do same thing with regular cash, and these shady things happens at much larger scale than with crypto.

[bitvalak]

all back to the humans each. Bitcoin was not created for negative things, but was created for positive things that are more beneficial for many people. But there are some people or groups that use bitcoin as a crime transaction tool. It depends on which side you look at. Even without bitcoin, I think there are still many pedophile activities for children. So that is not a reason to blame Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency.

[zitbau]

No, electronic money does not help with sexual abuse. This is because the Philippine government policy is not tight. Many countries accept bitcoin but this problem does not happen. Therefore, electronic money is not responsible for this.

[Peacemaker1994]

This is just criticism targeted at the cryptocurrency world. Even before the onset of cryptocurrency child sexual abuse has been in play so I don't not think cryptocurrency caused it. And also cryptocurrency is a transaction system based on block chain technology so it meant for transfer that Any one can use it both Good or bad

[DJ_Rick]

I have never thought about btc and other crypto like this. To my mind, there is no any connection, I have never thought that it is even possible to talk about crypto and sexual abuse

[mrcash02]

No, it's not. Pedophiles and cyber children abuse exist since before Bitcoin was created. It's like criticizing any other payment method or currency because they "help" spreading crimes around the world. If money laundering and other financial crimes are tracked even if the individuals involved on these activities use Bitcoin, people involved with pedophilia using Bitcoin can be found as well and punished (not only the one paying, but who receives the money too).

If it's happening frequently in Philippines, it's time for the authorities to act with intelligence, taking advantage from the technology it's disponible today.

[hildacitra]

One should be understood that is money is used for anything in the world, and bitcoin now has value and similar function as fiat or paper currency. So, anything will be similar as paper currency that often use in fraudulent activities and criminal activities as you mentioned for funds sexual abuse.It is a unavoidable things in this such sophisticated era.

[pixie85]

10 BTC at 10k USD a piece to see a child being molested? They must be targeting some rich perverts.

Even if they're using Bitcoin we can't say that Bitcoin is helping to do anything. It's an inanimate object. If a child gets hit and killed by a BMW driver, should we create threads saying "is BMW helping to kill people"? Giving inanimate objects some animate properties is a mental problem. You should seek help

[prehisto]

No offense but you know this resembles the Soviet propaganda?
Every time somebody criticizes bitcoin for something....but, but, but what about the banks!!!!

Yeah, pedophiles use cryptos, bestiality sites use crypto, darknets use crypto...just live with the fact that cryptos are not just pink bears and unicorns.

I dont see how you see soviet propoganda. I dont think that cryptos are not used for illegal activities . I know that they are and will be used by illegal activity but the wider perception is that cryptos are exclusively used by criminals while traditional banking is not, thats why I mentioned PayPal and how it is used.

[Baofeng]

Was surprised by the amount of news being circulated around in Bitcoin Discussion board 'attacking' Bitcoin at every angle. There was one thread about criminality and now sexual abuse? Is crypto journalism really that bad? I mean its pretty obvious that all those illegal activity is just a small percentage of actual bitcoin usage, but why it is still highlighted as if Bitcoin is the main cause of all of this? I'm still baffled by all of this accusations.

[kryptqnick]

Every time somebody criticizes bitcoin for something....but, but, but what about the banks!!!!

Yeah, pedophiles use cryptos, bestiality sites use crypto, darknets use crypto...just live with the fact that cryptos are not just pink bears and unicorns.

I agree with you. I think that money should not be accused when its used for bad purposes. If cryptos were accepted more widely, they wouldn't have such bad reputation. Moreover, they are also used for really nice things like medical care, donations on education etc. GiveCrypto.org raises millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies for people in need to have this sort of money. There are various projects and use cases and if bad people use good things, we shouldn't blame the latter. Hitler was vegetarian, but it doesn't mean that vegetarians are bad, does it?

[BlackPanda]

Basically, crypto makes things easy. Including this, I assume that crypto has helped transactions that should not have been done by people who are not yet mature. This is unavoidable and in my opinion the role of parents should be better. Because when parents can provide good direction and educate their children to have a good personal review, things like this can be avoided much more easily.