Today, there are more and more news stories about the exposure of sexual content distribution schemes among dark web users. User groups that monitor the activities of anonymous users on the dark web report a surge in the popularity of discussions related to the generation of new content based on materials of sexual abuse of minors.
Illegal content generated by users of the dark web
Despite the fact that children are a vulnerable group in society, even adults are not immune from such participation. Based on the materials from The Guardian, we can see a terrible trend where indecent content of victims of childhood abuse is used to generate “fresh photos”. That is, victims of childhood abuse may already be adults, and new photo albums are massively generated based on content depicting them as children. According to surveys, most victims fear that this “dirty” practice, which increases the number of sensitive photos of them that are shared online, will destroy their lives that they have built after the violence.
Back in December 2023, Stanford University shared an alarming report about LAION-5B. LAION-5B is a dataset containing more than 5 billion images that anyone can use to train neural networks and AI. The report claimed that this catalog contains more than 1.5 thousand images with open violence against minors, and is openly available to all fans of “exclusive content”.
The Guardian in its research cited excerpts of several correspondences from “thematic forums”. All communications were friendly and casual, and the participants discussed the possibility of generating sexual content with the help of neural networks to share it in their closed groups. In general, the sentiment divided users into 2 groups: the former were happy to receive new content with their “favorite characters”, but the latter were not interested in using content that depicted fictional violence.
In a 2020 study, Meta raised the issue of the distribution of CP [child porn] on its social media. According to the company's representatives, half of all such materials are 6 videos, and they are the ones that are republished on Instagram and Facebook. According to the statistics they shared, 90% of all child abuse content is the material that was reported earlier.
Representatives of Hollywood could not stay away either. In its analysis of dark web forums, The Guardian noted the popularity of content generation based on materials featuring teenage stars of the 1990s. Users who have access to neural networks are very interested in creating violent content depicting 90s celebrities who have already become adults.
Since Onion sites and specific browsers allow you to remain anonymous, there is a big problem with regulating the removal of violent content depicting children. Despite the unification and joint work of victims of AI-generated materials, there is currently no way to resolve this issue, even with the involvement of law enforcement agencies.
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