What You Need to Know About ‘Dark Web’ Site Telegram
By Movieguide® Contributor
Experts are warning against the new “dark web” site and what parents can do to keep their children safe.
Benjamin Bull, General Counsel and Senior Vice President of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, explained the power of Telegram, a social media site “used by criminals, people who want to buy and sell and trade child pornography.”
“The reason it’s attracting so much criminal activity…is because it’s encrypted,” he told Movieguide®. “No one can ever find out what I’m saying to you, no one can ever find out what you’re saying to me. We can exchange images, we can sell illegal guns, we can sell cryptocurrency, we can sell children, we can sell women.”
Telegram recently made headlines after CEO Pavel Durov was arrested by French authorities for complicity in distributing child pornography, illegal drugs and hacking software on the app, in addition to refusing to cooperate with authorities in investigations into illegal activity on Telegram.
“Telegram’s CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe,” Telegram said in a statement about the arrest. “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.”
Bull continued, “[Durov’s] made a reputation for himself as being hostile to the police, to any government agency, and that, in turn, has attracted even more bad actors to the platform, where they feel like they can be safe from any kind of accountability.”
Telegram was listed on the NCOSE’s Dirty Dozen list, “an annual campaign calling out twelve mainstream entities for facilitating, enabling, and even profiting from sexual abuse and exploitation,” per their website.
“TikTok, Twitter, Instagram — they at least claim to be against CSAM and child pornography, but their enforcement mechanisms are grossly inadequate,” Bull said. “Children are being literally hypnotized through algorithms and extreme manipulative behavior…they hire marketers and algorithm specialists that are the best manipulators on the planet…they’re really good at it, and there are no laws on the books to prevent them from doing that.”
He brought up the Kids Online Safety Act, which would force tech companies to take steps to protect children on their platforms.
“It’s the beginning, not the end, but it’ll be a tool. It doesn’t limit any content on the internet. It just prevents the manipulative algorithms from being used to target kids,” he explained.
Bull also shared his biggest tip for parents who are worried about their children — “Keep them off social media, period.”
Movieguide® previously reported on the Kids Online Safety Act:
The Senate just passed two bills that will strengthen privacy protections for children online as well as cut back on targeted ads aimed at young people.
The Kids Online Safety Act and the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act were passed with overwhelming support, 91-3.
“This is why we came here — to get things done and do it in a bipartisan way that literally will save lives,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said.
Blumenthal partnered with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. to author the Kids Online Safety Act.
“What we’re doing is giving parents and kids the tools to disconnect from harmful content, bullying, eating disorders, stuff that really hurts them, and also impose a duty of care on Big Tech that for too long has said ‘trust us’ and betrayed that trust,” he continued. “And now, they’re going to have to comply with a law that imposes a duty on them to mitigate or prevent harm.”
