4 ms·

They arrested the stupid users. Pedophiles are not known for being among the brightest. Those people downloaded the Tor browser and blindly started browsing on

They arrested the stupid users. Pedophiles are not known for being among the brightest. Those people downloaded the Tor browser and blindly started browsing on it. It wouldn't have been so easy to get information on 200 real cyber criminals.

brianwawok 10y ago
That sounds a bit like strawman. Do you have a citation that a pedo has less IQ than the average member of society? I think by using Tor that puts them in the top 1% of internet user knowledge, which is against your statement.
- foobarbecue 10y ago
  Are you getting straw man and ad hominum mixed up? Not that either of those fallacies were used here...
- elliottcarlson 10y ago
  Just because they are using Tor (either by searching how to hide their tracks, or just because the community for this kind of content in general will gravitate to something like Tor), doesn't really mean they would be in the top 1% - they followed instructions that someone in the top 1% created. Whether that means they have a lower IQ than the average member of society though, that is a whole other thing.
  - brianwawok 10y ago
    I do not think anyone outside the top 1% could even follow the directions to download and use tor. You are vastly overestimating the compute power of the average person.
    - Raphmedia 10y ago
      I mean, it's a simple link to a simple installer. Click on this and you will be ready to go: https://www.torproject.org/dist/torbrowser/6.0.5/torbrowser-install-6.0.5_en-US.exe https://www.torproject.org/dist/torbrowser/6.0.5/torbrowser-...
- Raphmedia 10y ago
  > I think by using Tor that puts them in the top 1% of internet user knowledge, which is against your statement. There used to be an image on 4chan that was posted quite often. On the image you would see a link to download the Tor browser and then onion urls to the main child porn websites. Those people are not crypto experts. They are idiots that followed an "how to child porn" infographic.
  - cwilkes 10y ago
    What if you wrote a spider that hit 4chan and then went off to one of those CP sites? Could the script be prosecuted? The writer or runner of the script didn't explicitly say to go there and the probably primitive script has no way of telling what is on the other end.
    - haakon 10y ago
      Somebody did that, except for with drugs instead of CP: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150721-my-robot-bought-illegal-drugs http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150721-my-robot-bought-ill...
- haakon 10y ago
  There is some research that suggests pedophilia is linked to lower IQ, such as http://sax.sagepub.com/content/19/3/285 http://sax.sagepub.com/content/19/3/285. But as with most research on people with this condition, subjects are picked from the prison population and/or from psychiatric patients.
Zuider 10y ago
The FBI certainly didn't catch the creators and distributors of the original content because those people operate as professional criminals. The sting may affect their revenue stream by scaring off consumers who were under the illusion that they could make themselves safely anonymous.
throwaway_acas 10y ago
Ever heard of Operation Achilles[1]? If pedophiles (and immoral people in general) were all stupid our world would be a much better place. [1]: https://gist.github.com/grugq/7713916 https://gist.github.com/grugq/7713916

brianwawok 10y ago

That sounds a bit like strawman. Do you have a citation that a pedo has less IQ than the average member of society? I think by using Tor that puts them in the top 1% of internet user knowledge, which is against your statement.

foobarbecue 10y ago
Are you getting straw man and ad hominum mixed up? Not that either of those fallacies were used here...
elliottcarlson 10y ago
Just because they are using Tor (either by searching how to hide their tracks, or just because the community for this kind of content in general will gravitate to something like Tor), doesn't really mean they would be in the top 1% - they followed instructions that someone in the top 1% created. Whether that means they have a lower IQ than the average member of society though, that is a whole other thing.
- brianwawok 10y ago
  I do not think anyone outside the top 1% could even follow the directions to download and use tor. You are vastly overestimating the compute power of the average person.
  - Raphmedia 10y ago
    I mean, it's a simple link to a simple installer. Click on this and you will be ready to go: https://www.torproject.org/dist/torbrowser/6.0.5/torbrowser-install-6.0.5_en-US.exe https://www.torproject.org/dist/torbrowser/6.0.5/torbrowser-...
Raphmedia 10y ago
> I think by using Tor that puts them in the top 1% of internet user knowledge, which is against your statement. There used to be an image on 4chan that was posted quite often. On the image you would see a link to download the Tor browser and then onion urls to the main child porn websites. Those people are not crypto experts. They are idiots that followed an "how to child porn" infographic.
- cwilkes 10y ago
  What if you wrote a spider that hit 4chan and then went off to one of those CP sites? Could the script be prosecuted? The writer or runner of the script didn't explicitly say to go there and the probably primitive script has no way of telling what is on the other end.
  - haakon 10y ago
    Somebody did that, except for with drugs instead of CP: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150721-my-robot-bought-illegal-drugs http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150721-my-robot-bought-ill...
haakon 10y ago
There is some research that suggests pedophilia is linked to lower IQ, such as http://sax.sagepub.com/content/19/3/285 http://sax.sagepub.com/content/19/3/285. But as with most research on people with this condition, subjects are picked from the prison population and/or from psychiatric patients.

Zuider 10y ago

The FBI certainly didn't catch the creators and distributors of the original content because those people operate as professional criminals. The sting may affect their revenue stream by scaring off consumers who were under the illusion that they could make themselves safely anonymous.

throwaway_acas 10y ago

Ever heard of Operation Achilles[1]? If pedophiles (and immoral people in general) were all stupid our world would be a much better place. [1]: https://gist.github.com/grugq/7713916 https://gist.github.com/grugq/7713916