Kiddie porn enthusiasts make use of private social networking site

Multiply.com

Some people don’t like the idea of sharing their photos on Facebook where just anyone can see them. They want to be able to share photos, but privately, controlling who has access to them. That’s where Multiply.com comes in. USA Today has called it the next social-networking wave.

With its robust privacy settings, Multiply.com bills itself as a place for “secure, family-friendly media sharing.”

However, those robust settings meant the site lent itself to some extreme un-family-friendly photo sharing. A group of men from around the country created a private community on the site, called “Stephen’s Group.” There, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, they shared “images and videos of children having sex with each other or adult males.”

As I’ve written before, the downside of privacy is that it allows us to do disturbing stuff under the cover of secrecy. The site’s About Section touts its “Robust Privacy Options: Blog for the whole world, post photos for friends-of-friends, or share a video with just a person or two. On Multiply, you set your privacy options… and do so on an item-by-item basis.”

Looking at what the site can do is disturbing due to the porno palimpsest:

“Keeping in Touch: Multiply’s powerful, flexible “Inbox” not only lets your friends and family know when you’ve posted something new, but also keeps them updated when replies are added. This keeps everyone in the loop, which keeps the discussion flowing.”

The men were not busted originally due to cyber sleuthing on the social networking site. One of the men in Pennsylvania was found to have over 1,000 photos on his computer. He then informed authorities about the Multiply.com group and helped them infiltrate it.

Stephen Sims, 55, of San Leandro, Calif., vetted potential members through a social networking site by requiring them to send child pornography to demonstrate they were not police officers, according to court papers filed by prosecutors in Pittsburgh in connection to the indictments of eight people. And they had to regularly post new pornography to maintain their membership, court records say.

An arrest last year in Western Pennsylvania — court papers don’t say who was arrested or where — led Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to crack the international ring that authorities say might include more than 100 participants.

via Arrest in Western Pennsylvania reveals national child porn ring – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review .

Why do the creepy child porn enthusiasts have to ruin social networking for the rest of us?

In my Googling for this story, I happened upon something equally creepy: a Texas law firm with a child porn defense practice. I do believe everyone’s entitled to fair representation in the legal system, but this ad’s accompanying photo is in poor taste…

Lindeman, Alvarado & Frye

… and it misspells solicitation.

(Thanks for sharing this disturbing story on Facebook, Karn.)