Social networks can be dangerous for young children. (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — The head of a Lebanese gang — whose members were arrested in recent days for alleged sexual assaults on children via TikTok — used the dark web to conduct the alleged crimes, according to local media outlets.
According to police, the gang lured the children via TikTok messages and then sold exploitative images of them on the dark web.
While eight suspects have been arrested until now in the case, the Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) said last week that investigations are ongoing to arrest the other members of the gang, estimated by one judicial official at 28 individuals.
According to OTV, the head of the gang had been receiving "rape videos, which were sold at exorbitant prices on the dark web."
But what is this so-called "dark web"?
In a nutshell
According to American company TechTarget, the dark web is an "encrypted portion of the internet not visible to the general public via a traditional search engine such as Google." Cyber security consultant Roland Abi Najem told L'Orient Today that the dark web can be access by hackers who have a special browser and are connected to a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
Development of the dark web in parallel with that of the Internet began in 2000 with the publication of Freenet, the thesis project of University of Edinburgh student Ian Clarke.
The future computer scientist had set himself the goal of creating a “decentralized information storage and retrieval system” to provide a new means of communicating and sharing files anonymously online.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s also came the idea of "onion routing," that is, "being able to use the internet with as much privacy as possible," according to Tor Project, which launched the privacy-centric Tor browser in 2008. "The idea was to route traffic through multiple servers and encrypt it each step of the way."
I2P, Freenet, Tails and Subgraph all offer similar features with different options and degrees of protection. The fact that there's no barrier of security in the dark web means that chances of piracy are high. One of the ways dark web surfers usually enhance their own security is by browsing from a virtual PC (a computer file that behaves like an actual computer).
Criminal activities
Although browsing the Dark Web is not illegal in itself, whether in Europe or the United States, to take just two examples, it does provide a breeding ground for illegal activities.
According to TechTarget, which offers marketing services to technology vendors, the dark web is used by those looking to buy or sell stolen credit card numbers, personally identifiable information, illegal content such as child sexual abuse materials and more.
"Arms trafficking, drug dealing and the sharing of exploitative content" are also possible on the dark web, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Gangs often use the dark web to conduct illegal activities, including exploitation of children, Abi Najem told L'Orient Today.
Commenting on the alleged TikTok pedophile gang recently arrested in Lebanon, he added the ringleader was likely that "aware that people who have pedophilia pay a lot of money to access films in the dark web."