Child pornography: "It happens at home,
you are responsible"
Cases of children sexually exploited on the internet peaked with lockdown.
Our journalists are continuing their investigation into this other epidemic.
Our journalists are continuing their investigation into this other epidemic.
Tens of thousands of child pornography images are detected each year on the computer servers of hosting companies located in Quebec.
Websites used by predators around the world to share tens of thousands of child pornography images are hosted on the computer servers of large companies located in Quebec, reveals unpublished data obtained by La Presse . The experts are categorical: web hosts can no longer turn a blind eye to illegal content from sites hosted on their servers.
Business response: we do not have access to our clients' content.
False, retorts Jean Loup Le Roux, expert in cybersecurity and privacy. “The hosts, they don't want to interfere with what their users are doing. But from a technological point of view, in the vast majority of cases, they have access to the content. It is their infrastructure. "
Websites used by predators around the world to share tens of thousands of child pornography images are hosted on the computer servers of large companies located in Quebec, reveals unpublished data obtained by La Presse . The experts are categorical: web hosts can no longer turn a blind eye to illegal content from sites hosted on their servers.
Business response: we do not have access to our clients' content.
False, retorts Jean Loup Le Roux, expert in cybersecurity and privacy. “The hosts, they don't want to interfere with what their users are doing. But from a technological point of view, in the vast majority of cases, they have access to the content. It is their infrastructure. "
"To see what is happening, you have to be proactive," adds criminology professor Francis Fortin, from the University of Montreal, a former cybercrime analyst at the Sûreté du Québec.
First, the numbers:
- The Canadian Center for Child Protection (CCPE), which has a detection tool, sent some 150,000 requests to web providers between 2018 and 2020 to remove images considered to be child pornography from the servers of hosting companies established in Quebec.
- Very often, the same image was found more than once on the servers. In some cases, the CCPE also had to send out several notices before an image was taken off the web.
- In all, 71,000 different images showing sexually assaulted children were detected over a period of three years in the data centers of major Quebec hosting providers.
“And that's just what we find. These figures in no way reflect the scale of the distribution,
”warns the spokesperson for the organization, René Morin.
How it works ?
The CCPE tool, called Project Arachnid, searches the Web like a facial recognition program. He is looking for images known to the authorities as child pornography. They are part of databases assembled over the course of the surveys. Either the victims are identified or it is clear that they are minors. When an image is detected, a removal request is automatically sent to the website manager
or to the owner of the server where it was uploaded.
Two sites, ImageVenue.com, a carsharing platform well known to the Montreal police, and GayBoysTube, a pornography site that allows users to broadcast their own content, stand out for the number of images detected.
Although both are managed abroad, the first in the Czech Republic and the second in Texas, they have this in common: between 2018 and 2020 they rented space on the computer servers of large companies located in Montreal. Many of them choose Quebec to establish their data centers because of electricity prices and favorable weather.
First, the numbers:
- The Canadian Center for Child Protection (CCPE), which has a detection tool, sent some 150,000 requests to web providers between 2018 and 2020 to remove images considered to be child pornography from the servers of hosting companies established in Quebec.
- Very often, the same image was found more than once on the servers. In some cases, the CCPE also had to send out several notices before an image was taken off the web.
- In all, 71,000 different images showing sexually assaulted children were detected over a period of three years in the data centers of major Quebec hosting providers.
“And that's just what we find. These figures in no way reflect the scale of the distribution,
”warns the spokesperson for the organization, René Morin.
How it works ?
The CCPE tool, called Project Arachnid, searches the Web like a facial recognition program. He is looking for images known to the authorities as child pornography. They are part of databases assembled over the course of the surveys. Either the victims are identified or it is clear that they are minors. When an image is detected, a removal request is automatically sent to the website manager
or to the owner of the server where it was uploaded.
Two sites, ImageVenue.com, a carsharing platform well known to the Montreal police, and GayBoysTube, a pornography site that allows users to broadcast their own content, stand out for the number of images detected.
Although both are managed abroad, the first in the Czech Republic and the second in Texas, they have this in common: between 2018 and 2020 they rented space on the computer servers of large companies located in Montreal. Many of them choose Quebec to establish their data centers because of electricity prices and favorable weather.
In three years, ImageVenue alone received 140,000 removal requests for some 68,000 images showing sexually exploited children. According to the CCPE, these images were on servers of the company iWeb, which has data centers in LaSalle, Saint-Léonard and L'Île-des-Sœurs. In recent months, the site has changed host and is no longer in Quebec.
Even if it is not iWeb directly, but ImageVenue, which received the deletion requests, the CCPE claims to have alerted the Quebec host about the photos and videos repeatedly published on the site of its client. “We often go back to suppliers in such situations,” says René Morin. One of the former owners of iWeb, Martin Leclair, said that the police had landed at the host in 2010 to conduct a search in connection with ImageVenue.
Even if it is not iWeb directly, but ImageVenue, which received the deletion requests, the CCPE claims to have alerted the Quebec host about the photos and videos repeatedly published on the site of its client. “We often go back to suppliers in such situations,” says René Morin. One of the former owners of iWeb, Martin Leclair, said that the police had landed at the host in 2010 to conduct a search in connection with ImageVenue.
GayBoysTube, which is hosted at eStruxture, still in the metro area, received some 2,300 removal requests for over 900 child pornography images over the same period. eStruxture also received nearly 1000 notices directly from the CCPE concerning images hosted
on sites among its clients.
on sites among its clients.
To a third hosting company, OVH, whose servers are in Beauharnois, the CCPE sent 6,364 requests between 2018 and 2020 concerning child pornography images on sites it hosted.
La Presse asked the three hosting companies for interviews, which instead sent us written statements. Their role, they say, stops at providing a platform to create or host content, not to verify that content.
“IWeb provides internet infrastructure to businesses, iWeb does not have access to content stored
on a customer's internet infrastructure,” writes the host.
"The content is not filtered or reviewed by the service provider, so we do not technically have access to the content and data of our customers," said a spokesperson for OVH.
The company, it is said, "does not tolerate the hosting of abusive or illegal content." “We are constantly cooperating with local authorities to help them with their investigative processes. We have an alert platform and dedicated teams that deal with all complaints. "
iWeb also says it “takes the issue of child pornography very seriously”. “Our team quickly deals with any complaint about illegal content that happens to be hosted in any of our clients' environments, including notifying law enforcement
and suspending a client's internet infrastructure. , if applicable. "
Same response from eStruxture, which says "respect the obligations of the law by denouncing any prohibited publication to the authorities when it is informed".
Asked about the exact number of reports they made to the RCMP concerning child pornography images detected on their servers, the companies did not provide any response. Ditto for the number of suspended customers.
A moral responsibility
So, is a computer server company responsible for the content that is hosted with it on foreign websites that are only its customers?
Yes, the experts in the field immediately answer.
According to Canadian law, any company offering internet services must report any images of child sexual exploitation of which it becomes aware to the police. But nothing forces companies to do preventive work to detect such images. Hence the position of the hosts.
“They don't have to look for the pictures. This is the factor that probably needs to change,
”notes Lloyd Richardson, director of information technology at CCPE.
“The discourse according to which people download what they want and that we cannot control it, that no longer works today, insists Francis Fortin. It happens at home, you are responsible. "
There is this analogy: the host is like the owner of a shopping center. The website that disseminates the images is a business that rents out space. "The owner says: 'It's not for me to manage what happens in the stores." But if he runs a security guard down the halls, he's going to find out, what's going on. When someone sells illegal products in your mall, you have a responsibility. "
La Presse asked the three hosting companies for interviews, which instead sent us written statements. Their role, they say, stops at providing a platform to create or host content, not to verify that content.
“IWeb provides internet infrastructure to businesses, iWeb does not have access to content stored
on a customer's internet infrastructure,” writes the host.
"The content is not filtered or reviewed by the service provider, so we do not technically have access to the content and data of our customers," said a spokesperson for OVH.
The company, it is said, "does not tolerate the hosting of abusive or illegal content." “We are constantly cooperating with local authorities to help them with their investigative processes. We have an alert platform and dedicated teams that deal with all complaints. "
iWeb also says it “takes the issue of child pornography very seriously”. “Our team quickly deals with any complaint about illegal content that happens to be hosted in any of our clients' environments, including notifying law enforcement
and suspending a client's internet infrastructure. , if applicable. "
Same response from eStruxture, which says "respect the obligations of the law by denouncing any prohibited publication to the authorities when it is informed".
Asked about the exact number of reports they made to the RCMP concerning child pornography images detected on their servers, the companies did not provide any response. Ditto for the number of suspended customers.
A moral responsibility
So, is a computer server company responsible for the content that is hosted with it on foreign websites that are only its customers?
Yes, the experts in the field immediately answer.
According to Canadian law, any company offering internet services must report any images of child sexual exploitation of which it becomes aware to the police. But nothing forces companies to do preventive work to detect such images. Hence the position of the hosts.
“They don't have to look for the pictures. This is the factor that probably needs to change,
”notes Lloyd Richardson, director of information technology at CCPE.
“The discourse according to which people download what they want and that we cannot control it, that no longer works today, insists Francis Fortin. It happens at home, you are responsible. "
There is this analogy: the host is like the owner of a shopping center. The website that disseminates the images is a business that rents out space. "The owner says: 'It's not for me to manage what happens in the stores." But if he runs a security guard down the halls, he's going to find out, what's going on. When someone sells illegal products in your mall, you have a responsibility. "
Independent Senator Julie Miville-Dechêne, who has made the issue of child pornography her hobbyhorse, agrees. Hosting companies are, at a minimum, morally responsible for what ends up on their servers. “It pays off, the servers. They take advantage of our electricity. They take advantage of our weather. They are accountable. You can't both be in charge of a company and not know what's going on there, she says. "
"Revolted". This is the word used by Quebec Liberal Party member Christine St-Pierre, vice-president of the Parliamentary Commission on the Sexual Exploitation of Minors last year. “We all had our eyes on Pornhub / Mindgeek. However, your revelations show a larger problem that urgently needs to be tackled. "
In March, following a recommendation from this commission, Quebec set up a committee of experts to examine the presence of child pornography on the sites of companies registered in Quebec. According to the official announcement, server owners are not in the crosshairs. M me St-Pierre wants Quebec specifies the composition of the committee, its mission and its timetable. “Quebec has a role to play in protecting the children whose images end up on these servers. If the servers are here, it's because it's profitable. We must act ! "
"There are tools"The irony in all of this is that it is quite easy to detect illegal images as soon as they are downloaded.
“There are automatic recognition tools. People still distribute the same abusive images. If we could eliminate at least that, that would be a start, ”says Francis Fortin.
Hosts could, at a minimum, contractually require their customers to use it, says René Morin.
Lloyd Richardson gives the example of the tens of thousands of images published on ImageVenue. “The majority of the images found there have already been reported by us and removed from the web. People don't even bother to change them. They just download them again when they see that they are no longer there. If proactive work was done, we could just prevent them from reappearing. "
Not to mention, he adds, that his center offers free tools to businesses to help them filter upstream photos and videos considered child pornography. “All it takes is a little bit of installation work,” he says.
GAYBOYSTUBE'S RESPONSETwo foreign websites are targeted in this report. We contacted them. No one at ImageVenue responded to our interview requests. GayBoysTube manager Sean Watson told us this: “I work really hard to manually review all images before they are posted. Sometimes I miss things, but I try my best. I take great responsibility to monitor, review and respond promptly to any issues. […] I think you get a misleading image because of the number of delete requests they send multiple times [for the same image]. "
"Revolted". This is the word used by Quebec Liberal Party member Christine St-Pierre, vice-president of the Parliamentary Commission on the Sexual Exploitation of Minors last year. “We all had our eyes on Pornhub / Mindgeek. However, your revelations show a larger problem that urgently needs to be tackled. "
In March, following a recommendation from this commission, Quebec set up a committee of experts to examine the presence of child pornography on the sites of companies registered in Quebec. According to the official announcement, server owners are not in the crosshairs. M me St-Pierre wants Quebec specifies the composition of the committee, its mission and its timetable. “Quebec has a role to play in protecting the children whose images end up on these servers. If the servers are here, it's because it's profitable. We must act ! "
"There are tools"The irony in all of this is that it is quite easy to detect illegal images as soon as they are downloaded.
“There are automatic recognition tools. People still distribute the same abusive images. If we could eliminate at least that, that would be a start, ”says Francis Fortin.
Hosts could, at a minimum, contractually require their customers to use it, says René Morin.
Lloyd Richardson gives the example of the tens of thousands of images published on ImageVenue. “The majority of the images found there have already been reported by us and removed from the web. People don't even bother to change them. They just download them again when they see that they are no longer there. If proactive work was done, we could just prevent them from reappearing. "
Not to mention, he adds, that his center offers free tools to businesses to help them filter upstream photos and videos considered child pornography. “All it takes is a little bit of installation work,” he says.
GAYBOYSTUBE'S RESPONSETwo foreign websites are targeted in this report. We contacted them. No one at ImageVenue responded to our interview requests. GayBoysTube manager Sean Watson told us this: “I work really hard to manually review all images before they are posted. Sometimes I miss things, but I try my best. I take great responsibility to monitor, review and respond promptly to any issues. […] I think you get a misleading image because of the number of delete requests they send multiple times [for the same image]. "
GABRIELLE DUCHAINE
press
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/enquetes/2021-04-13/l-autre-epidemie/pornographie-juvenile-ca-se-passe-chez-toi-tu-es-responsable.php
press
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/enquetes/2021-04-13/l-autre-epidemie/pornographie-juvenile-ca-se-passe-chez-toi-tu-es-responsable.php
