Re: FBI ran massive child porn website to catch pedophiles

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[This thread is referring to the news story here:
viewtopic.php?t=304448&p=6970841#p6970841
The OP has been removed and this link is provided for context --Adamantium]

I am glad that they are taking these perverts out of society. They should stick them in general population where true justice will be handed down. By giving them a taste of their own medicine. These children will be emotionally scarred for the rest of their lives. They probably need many years of therapy.

A more accurate description would be:

"FBI took over massive child porn website and let it function for an additional 14 days to catch criminals using it rather than shutting it down immediately".

Given that the content would likely simply be posted on other websites, shutting down this particular server probably wouldn't remove much (if any) child pornography from circulation. It did - however - provide the FBI with a unique opportunity to track and identify specific criminals.

That being said, it does seem like a less than optimal use of resources, as it would make more sense for the FBI to target producers of child pornography rather than the viewers of it.

I haven't been able to find many details about the individuals arrested, but if they were "only" viewers of child pornography and not producers, then it's not really much of a catch... Given the publicity surrounding this case, it will likely be difficult for the FBI to use similar tactics in the future, so one would at least hope that they managed to catch some major players.

Seems like an almost trivially low return rate on a non-trivial expenditure except for two things in my mind:

- If they can convict a single pedophile/child rapist the cost is likely not too dissimilar to a full real world sting operation that might only net one conviction. If out of those 137 they gain multiple convictions it was well worth it in my opinion. Children are among the most vulnerable people and pedophiles are often among the most socially adept at not getting caught.

- If the complained "excess" is that they left the site running for two weeks rather than just grab the user list and shut it down, it's a false excess. By keeping the site up - which takes a trivial amount of manpower, btw - they were likely able to show *repeated* logins by the same real world person and run the necessary ISP traces to prove who that person was. If they'd taken it down immediately, it's likely good lawyers would simply say the pedophile/child molester visited (a deep web site!) by accident and never went back, or it was otherwise a case of mistaken identity.

For all the FBI did on this operation about half of that 137 better be be convictable producers. Otherwise they've helped to spread porn more than anything.

I hope that these perverts are treated the same way in prison the same way they treated those children. In prison, child ponographers are "targeted" by the other prisoners. They deserve to pay for their crimes in prison from the other prisoners in general population.

Reminds me of how the FBI, decades ago, had either infiltrated the various KKK organizations, or had even founded some, by which they were able to get a handle on white supremacist terrorism. With it came a great many prosecutions, and ultimately helped in the Klan's decline.