Child Pornography The Darkness of Giant Business-Behind the Spread of Naked "Selfie Videos" -November 22, 20:10
There is no end to the incidents surrounding child sexual videos and images of "child pornography."
Last year, 1320 children were victims of child pornography, such as sending naked videos to adults who were skillfully approaching words through SNS.
We have been covering the case of a child pornography site being caught for over a year.
From the interviews, we can see that a huge black market for child pornography was created without knowing it, and many adults flocked to the naked children to make money and spread the video all over the world.
(Nagoya Broadcasting Station reporter Moe Sasaki / Shota Nakagawa, director Chinami Oma)
A huge business called child pornography
Last June, the largest child pornography sales site in Japan called "AV Market" was caught.
One of the operators says he made the following statement after his arrest.
"I was confident that the Japanese police could never catch us. I am proud of being the best porn mafia in Japan."
The operator managed the video data of the site and payments through overseas corporations such as the United States and Hungary, and by distributing the bases, he escaped the investigation in Japan.
A total of 53 people, including the site operator and sellers who sold child pornography on the site, and three corporations involved in the operation were arrested.
The number of members of the site is 20,000.
The operator earned a huge amount of 100 million units a month.
What surprised me was the system that made the site huge.
Twenty-three people were arrested for listing child pornography on the site.
Some were company officers and school staff.
Some earned tens of millions to 100 millions of yen.
We initially assumed that all of these people were involved in buying and selling because of their sexual interests.
However, 90% of the sellers arrested were people who had no interest in child pornography itself.
Why did you decide to buy and sell child pornography?
We decided to visit and listen to each of the arrests.
Seller "easy business"
The first seller we met was a seller in his 40s.
I earned 13 million yen in two years.
The seller had a job in the transportation industry, but his illness worsened and he lost his job.
When I was looking for a job on the internet, I found an ad for adult video sales.
It is said that the sale was introduced as if it was not illegal.
I felt that this would be less burdensome to my body and I could do it for myself with a chronic illness, so I started selling videos.
However, at first I couldn't make much money.
At one point I noticed the existence of a video that was bought and sold at a much higher price than an adult video.
It was child pornography, that is, naked videos and images of children.
Exhibitor (40s)
"The amount, number, and number of people to buy are about 30 to 50 times different (compared to adults). The work itself is easy, and you can sell it in about an hour at the longest, and you lie down. It feels like I can do it, so if I earned hundreds of thousands of dollars, I didn't feel like going out and working normally. Even if it doesn't take any effort, my income is double that of the previous one. To be honest, there was something I couldn't pull. "
He says that as he became absorbed in selling child pornography, his initial feelings of guilt diminished.
Exhibitor (40s)
"There was a time when I was wondering if I could continue to buy and sell, but as sales increased, it seemed like I was only for money. I wasn't directly involved with the victim. I don't think I was guilty because it feels like it's flowing from the net to the net. I'm not guilty, but it's been fading. It feels like it's just money. "
What all the sellers arrested had in common was that they were not involved in so-called "manufacturing," such as shooting child pornography.
I made money by so-called "resale", such as picking up self-portrait videos posted on SNS, editing videos purchased on the site, and selling them at a higher price.
Another seller in his 50s arrived at a child pornography site looking for a side job.
When he was arrested by the police, he was so guilty that he couldn't understand why.
Exhibitor (50's)
"You don't have to make it yourself. You can sell zero items. Conversely, you can sell stones. I picked up a naked video of a child who has no interest. If I think about it now, I wish I had double-worked normally, finished my daytime work, and worked part-time at a cafe. "
"Exhibitors" who sold and spread child pornography.
They were surprisingly unaware and lacking in guilt.
Adults who cleverly approach children
How was the child pornography that the sellers were reselling made?
I contacted a seller who had seen the manufacturing process.
He talked about live streaming on the Internet, showing adults who skillfully manipulate children who are connected in real time through the screen.
Exhibitor
"There are a lot of
people who
show their hearts a little in live distribution, and that kind of thing is the best. There are many things called selfies. For example, I want a heart or an item (to support the distributor and liven up the distribution) I'm throwing it. It's an item for 1000 yen, or it's 500 yen. I'm throwing an item so show me your boobs, and girls are getting more and more addicted. "
Exhibitor
"Say" cute "and take it off with words. At first, from a simple place," stand upside down ". If you stand upside down, your clothes will turn over, right? It feels like I'm stepping up
little by little
.
Now, it's really difficult to take out a 19-year-old female college student. It's also difficult to take it off. I take it off with one heart. "
Many of the videos sold on the site are said to have been "selfie" videos taken by the children themselves.
Both are believed to have been skillfully sent by adults.
"Affiliator" that promotes buying and selling
And another mechanism that made the child pornography market huge.
It is an "affiliate advertisement" that promotes the site on blogs and the like.
You will be paid if you promote your product on a blog or personal website, and the visitor goes to your site to purchase the product.
Affiliators post and promote "AV Market" links and banners.
It sent buyers and sellers to the site, making the market huge.
We interviewed one of the affiliates.
Affiliate
"only propaganda of child pornography of popularity is demand was Susamajika' .AVMarket, I think that it would be had about a month to three million yen. I like is I feel like I blinded by short-term money."
Affiliators were also involved in the gold scrutiny with little guilt, supporting illegal sites.
Surviving infrastructure
It's been over a year since I was caught.
We asked white hackers to help us find out what happened to the child pornography market.
It was Cheena who cooperated.
A great hacker.
Shortly after I started my research, I arrived at an adult site that I was interested in.
There are many designs and words similar to "AV Market" on the site.
When I looked up the IP address on the net, it matched the one used by the operator of "AV Market".
The point of using an overseas server and the mechanism of expanding by affiliates were very similar.
In just one year, a site that seems to be the successor was born.
Cheena
"After all, the infrastructure that supports illegal sites will inevitably remain. Even if the people involved are arrested, it is possible to build a similar site with a small number of people, so it is not strange that the same thing will happen again. I think it's true. "
The criminal infrastructure remains alive and the foundation for illegal business remains.
To protect children
The closer I got to the reality of child pornography in the interview, the more I felt a sense of helplessness, "How can I protect my children?"
However, I feel that we should first look at this situation and do what we can do one by one.
The police, lawyers, and experts interviewed this time all mentioned the necessity when considering strengthening penalties.
The "Child Pornography Prohibition Law" stipulates that if child pornography is provided to an unspecified number of people, imprisonment with work for not more than 5 years and a fine of not more than 5 million yen will be imposed.
However, in this case, most of the sellers were the first offenders, so only a fine of 500,000 yen was required.
In addition, the site operator, who earned hundreds of millions of yen a month, was found guilty of distributing obscene materials, but had a suspended sentence and was fined about 2 million yen.
On the other hand, it is difficult to prove how the affiliates who promoted the site and made money have led to the sale of child pornography, and although they are investigating, they have not been caught.
Experts say that the punishment is too light compared to the amount of profits that can be gained from buying and selling child pornography, and it is difficult to deter crime.
A lawyer familiar with child pornography also pointed out that "it should be recognized that naked children have economic value. It is also necessary to consider punishing commercial purchases and purchases as heavily as stimulants." ..
Some of the arrested people even say, "It's bad to sell child pornography so easily and make money," and we also need to think about legislation that is in line with the actual situation. I felt that it might be.
I also think that there are things that parents and adults around them can do.
You might think, "My child is okay," but there are also cases where you happen to be hurt by a parent's eye-catching plow at a relative's house, or from an online game chat.
To avoid damage, always get new information about how to get sophisticated selfie videos sent.
Then, after deciding the rules for how to use smartphones and SNS at home, it may be necessary to grasp and watch over what kind of SNS children are using.
What can we do to protect our children?
I would like to continue my coverage.
Nagoya Broadcasting Station Reporter
Moe Sasaki
Joined in 2019 In charge of Aichi Prefectural Police In charge of juvenile cases and fraud cases
Nagoya Broadcasting Station Reporter
Shota Nakagawa
Joined in 2020 In charge of Aichi Prefectural Police and Judiciary Coverage of juvenile cases and traffic cases
NHK
Nagoya Broadcasting Station Director
Chinami Oma
Joined in 2018 After working at the International Program Department, she was interested in human rights issues at NHK
Nagoya Broadcasting Station
and covered LGBTQ and foreign residents.