Tricks Pornographers Play
by Jerry Ropelato, CTO of ContentWatch Inc.
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There was a time when tricking a teen into viewing pornography meant that his pals pasted a Playboy centerfold into his locker. On the other hand, if he went looking for it, he couldve gotten hold of a magazine or two through an unscrupulous store clerk or a friends older brother. But once those few pages had exhausted their appeal, there was no full-scale blitz to deluge him with more.
Times have changed. Not only is pornography today more lewd and provocative, but its peddlers (now part of a multi-billion dollar industry) are much more aggressive in their recruitment of new customers. For both sides, the Internet has offered up a crucial ingredient to the burgeoning industryanonymity. No need to leave ones home to purchase pornography. Now, a never-ending supply of ever more erotic and interactive pornography can be accessed and experienced in a completely private world. And now, teen boys arent the sole target. To a pornographer, anyone with a computer is a potential addict.
Just about anyone who has used the Internetfrom 7-year-old boys to 80-year-old grandmasknows that pornography is just a click away. But most Internet users still believe that unless they go looking for porn, it wont find them. What they dont realize, however, is how aggressively pornographers are implementing new strategies in marketing and technology to actually push pornography to unwitting users, without their consent, and often even without their knowledge.
DECEPTION
The most common technique for tricking the Internet user is by sheer deception. When you walk into your neighborhood grocery store, you expect to find groceries on the shelves. But if, instead, you find thousands of explicit pornographic videos, you would be outraged. If the store appeared just as it did yesterday with the same name and same signs, wouldnt any unsuspecting shopper assume it was the same grocery store and not a porn outlet? Sound far-fetched? Not on the Internet!
Porn-Napping
It is a common practice among pornographers to purchase expired
domain names when the original owner forgets to renew the current
domain name, a strategy known as "porn-napping." After
purchasing the expired domain name, they then redirect the
expired URL back to their own porn sites. Sometimes the
pornographers will offer to resell the domain name back to the
original owner for an exorbitant fee that borders on extortion.
Thousands of well-known companies have learned the hard way how critical it is to keep tabs on their domain registrations. Due to an unfortunate clerical error, the accounting firm of Ernst and Young let the registration lapse on their childrens money management site, moneyopolis.org. Quickly purchased by a pornographer, all visitors to the site ended up at euroteensluts.com, obviously a porn site, until Ernst and Young repurchased moneyopolis.
Ernst and Young is not alone. Other big-name porn-napping victims include AOL, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dutch Government, the United Nations, and even the U.S. Department of Education.
Cyber Squatting
Many pornographers legally purchase domain names for legitimate
topics in a switch-up referred to as "cyber squatting."
As an example, someone expecting to find information about the
President of the United States might type in whitehouse.com and
be very confused (or outraged) at finding explicit porn on the
site. The official site for the Whitehouse is at whitehouse.gov
rather than .com. Other examples of cyber squatting include the
innocent-sounding web domain names of civilwarbattles.com,
eugenoregon.com, and tourdefrance.com.
Doorway Scams
A close cousin to porn-napping and cyber-squatting is a
technique known as a "doorway scam," which makes use of
one of the most common tools on the Internetthe search
engine. Experienced pornographers have figured out that by
carefully constructing their websites, and designing them around
non-pornographic themes, they gain new opportunities to deceive
unsuspecting surfers. Web page content is created to place the
website high on a search engines results, and after
clicking on it, the user is redirected to a porn site.
Another version of the doorway scam is to create a porn site around a common, non-pornographic theme. So rather than redirect the Internet user to another unrelatedbut pornographicsite, this technique actually creates pornographic web pages related to their title. Thus, in an innocent search for "livestock," the unsuspecting user may open up a page depicting bestiality.
Misspelling
Not long ago, if you were attempting to go to one of the most
popular search engines, google.com, and accidentally typed in an
extra "l" (googlle.com) you would have ended up at an
Asian porn site. Pornographers are buying up the misspelled
domain names of trendy, high-traffic sites with hard-to-spell
names, such as abercrombieandfitch.com, etc.
Speaking of Google, it recently became one of the first search engines to offer the ability to search the Internet by images, rather than in text and text-links. With this new technology, the results of the search are presented in an image or thumbnail graphical format. It is not hard to imagine how pornography can easily make its way into image search results.
Advertising
Advertising has become a huge business for websites, and this
innovation has not eluded clever pornographers. Fortunately, most
legitimate and responsible businesses will not sell advertising
space to pornographers. But unfortunately, that hasnt
stopped a large number of porn-industry leaders, who have created
fake system error messages, message alert boxes, or false forms
that dupe you into thinking you have to click on the OK button or
enter certain information, when in reality, you are clicking on
the link to open the pornographers front door.
ENTRAPMENT
If youve fallen prey to any of the above scams and entered a porn site, whether accidentally or not, your computer may have been marked or altered in some covert way. Depending on what was done at the porn sitewhether just an unintentional visit, a quick tour, or a download of a picture or programa whole host of problems can be encountered.
Looping
One common trick is to put your computer into a never-ending loop
with new porn pages appearing, one right after the other. The
faster you close the pages, the faster the new pages appear.
Mousetrapping
Depending on the browser you use, some sites will alter the use
of the Back button or the Close function, preventing you from
exiting the pornographic website. This practice is sometimes
known as "mousetrapping," because it renders your mouse
useless. Regardless of what you do, you have lost control of your
browser, similar to being caught in a mousetrap.
Startup File Alteration
It is also possible to have your computer altered with the
consequences not showing up immediately. In one technique,
pornographers place a program into your startup directory that
sends you to a porn site or displays a pornographic image
whenever you boot up.
Cookies
A cookie is a small file placed on your computers hard
drive when you visit certain websites. Though not necessarily a
bad function, cookies may contain considerable personal
information such as your buying habits, personal preferences, and
Internet usage history. Since they can store information about
you personally and about your Internet habits, they can be used
by unscrupulous pornographers to track every move you make on the
Web and target you for various scams, as well as becoming a
threat to your Internet privacy.
DANGEROUS DOWNLOADS
Pornographers are experienced at disguising themselves as credible websites. How well do you know the reputation of the source of your newly downloaded graphics? Hopefully, you didnt just invite the pornographer, in sheeps clothing, to invade your computer with a program that will take you on a never-ending pornographic ride with the wolf in the drivers seat.
Trojan Horses
With literally millions of free downloads readily available for
the taking, you can get everything from screen savers, background
images, and fancy desktop icons to serious gaming applications
and highly advanced software programs. But be warnedthat
very appealing new screen saver may actually be a Trojan horse,
that when clicked upon, kicks off a program that opens up into a
world of pornography, and also possibly wreaking havoc in your
system. Trojan horses and other malicious invaders can be placed
on your machine even when downloading something as simple as a
pretty calendar or a childrens puzzle.
Dialers
A more recent trick that unscrupulous porn dealers are
experimenting with involves using downloads to covertly install
expensive dialers on an unsuspecting users PC that will
automatically dial for-pay (and frequently long distance) porn
sites, charging exorbitant fees every time they do so. The
Federal Trade Commission recently filed a case against a company
for a variation of the dialer scam. This particular porn dealer
was using downloads to install 1-900 dial-up programs that
replace the existing ISP Internet accounts.
Spyware
Also called adware, spyware can be installed on your computer
without your knowledge when you download something from the
Internet or from file-sharing programs. Spyware covertly gathers
user information through the users Internet connection and
transmits that information back to the spyware author. Some
spyware programs have the ability to monitor keystrokes, scan
files on the hard drive, snoop other applications, and collect
email addresses, passwords, and credit card numbers. Generally
used for advertising, spyware can also give a porn peddler a
wealth of information about his unsuspecting prey.
Live Action
Webcams are special cameras that are set up to record and
broadcast full-motion video and sound over the Internet.
Originally, this technology was used to implement inexpensive
teleconferencing capabilities for businesses. Now it is one of
the favorite technologies used on pornographic websitesreal-time
viewing of sexual activities. This concept, popularized by the
movie, The Truman Show, allows for 24-hour uncensored and uncut
online viewing. Webcams can be installed in a bedroom, dormitory
room, showers, etc. A simple click from a website can allow you,
as an invited guest, to participate in a voyeuristic journey into
an individuals most intimate experiences.
Email
Depending on which email service you use, you may have already
been flooded with unwanted and unsolicited pornography. Hotmail
and AOL email accounts have been favorite targets for porn
peddlers aggressive marketing strategies. You can actually
become entangled in an inappropriate or adult website before you
even know that the email you received has anything to do with
pornography.
And dont make the mistake of thinking that simply following the unsubscribe instructions will end your email problems. By responding, you are telling the pornographer not only that your email account is valid, but also that you read his unsolicited message. Most likely he will continue to use and sell your address.
Some emails contain high-tech multimedia video attachments that begin playing the instant you click on them, whether inadvertently or not. New email technology even allows a video to be sent as part of the email rather than an attachment, with the result being that the video begins playing on your screen before you even realize what happened.
Emails are infamous for transmitting worms or viruses. As an example, the worm known as "Homepage" can modify your browsers user default home page, so that every time you click on your browser, you are automatically sent to a porn website.
Email Spoofing
One of the latest techniques in getting unsuspecting readers to
open inappropriate email is to use a technique known as "spoofing."
Originally developed as a virus transmitter, this practice works
on users who wouldnt think of opening an email attachment
from an unknown source. Through various methods, a deceitful
marketer can send you a "spoofed" email from someone in
your address book, creating a false sense of security as you open
their attachment.
Chat
Would you leave your front door open for a stranger to walk in
and talk to your 10-year-old daughter while you are away at work?
When it comes to Chat, that is exactly what is occurring. With
Instant Messenger (ICQ) or IRC chat, it is extremely easy for a
pornographer or pedophile to gain the trust of your child. Once
this trust is built, your child may be persuaded to do a myriad
of activities they would normally never consider doing, such as
learning about and discussing sexual activities with a stranger,
being coaxed into downloading pornography, or, as in several
notorious cases, being lured to a meeting location and then being
raped and murdered.
Another chat room trick that has been recently introduced includes "bots," robot programs that automatically invade ongoing chatroom discussions. These programs seduce the chatroom participants with provocative come-ons like "Click here to see me live," or "Hot girl, click here to see naked."
FILE SHARING
One of the most rapidly growing segments of the porn market is through file-sharing networks. Why? Because its free. Most parents have never heard of file sharing, but the growth rate of file-sharing programs has been absolutely explosive. In fact, CNET has a site called download.com which is used as an Internet clearinghouse for software. They report that during a single week of software downloads, over 3.1 million copies of file-sharing programs were downloaded.
Since most file-sharing networks are set up outside of the worldwide web, thus bypassing your browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.) and even your Internet Service Provider, they are also outside the realm of most filters. Very few filtering products can protect against file-sharing activities, but since this system is largely unknown to a whole segment of the population, many people have a false sense of security after installing a regular Internet filter.
Peer-to-Peer
You have probably heard of Napster, the peer-to-peer network that
was originally created to exchange music without any fees. Porn
peddlers are implementing these same strategies. Instead of
sharing your favorite song, they are making it easy to share the
most popular pornographic materials, including X-rated adult
videos.
Bulletin Boards
Using bulletin boardswhich do not use the Internetis
another method of sharing files. To access a bulletin board,
typically you dial into their computer system, via a modem, and
sign in with a password. Pornographers dealing with child
pornography frequently use bulletin boards because it is easier
for them to hide their illegal activities and also to control who
is entering their computer systems.
After reading about the pornographers extensive bag of tricks, the most common reaction is to just shut it downdisconnect the Internet, get rid of the computer, and eliminate the threat. Unfortunately, this radical approach is not only impractical and improbable, but it may also be the worst thing you can do to your children (and yourself, for that matter). Studentsyoung and oldneed the Internet to succeed in school and train for the future. It wont be long before most, if not all, high-paying jobs will require Internet skills. Plus, the Internet is arguably the most incredible and valuable resource ever conceived to connect us to our worldpast, present, and future. It would be a shame not to take advantage of the many positive aspects of this remarkable, though unpredictable, technology.
So . . . what to do?
Getting rid of the pornography problem in the new millennium is not quite as simple as closing the locker door or stuffing the magazine under the mattress. But if the old adage "knowledge is power" is true, then gaining an understanding of how pornography is being disseminated can at least be the first step in helping the unwary consumer gain power over the Internet. Other steps include playing it safe by:
Positioning the computer in an open room with the
monitor facing out
Using a dial-up service for your Internet Service Provider
(rather than being always connected)
Disabling your cookies (which might, however, undermine
your PCs online functionality)
In addition, a majority of these problems can be solved by using a filtered ISP to access the Internet or by installing reliable monitoring or filtering software, such as the well-proven products available online from ContentWatch at www.contentwatch.com. A comprehensive monitor that logs and reports all computer usage, online and off, may be all thats needed to dispel your fears about whats going on with your computer.
If, however, the monitor indicates that pornography is getting
into your PC through one of the above-noted methods, you may want
to consider a filtering solution. Before purchasing one, its
a good idea to do some research on the background and credibility
of the company, and then compare the different features offered.
Some things to look for in a good filter are:
It should be effortless to install
It should be user-friendly with basic pre-set
functionality
It should be customizable and adaptable to every users
needs and values
It should include easy-to-find helps and provide live
customer support
It should be impossible to disable without authorized
password
Reports and logs should be convenient, detailed, and easy
to access (from any location)
With technology changing at the speed of light, these tricks may be just the tip of the iceberg. But the solutions dont lie solely in technology. Online pornography is now a worldwide problem, affecting all ages from toddlers to grandparents, from California to Calcutta, from Sydney to Sudan. Its not going to go away on its own, and taking the ostrich approach wont keep it off your computer. It will take a huge world-community effortcombining the best of education, technology, legislation, and vigilancebut it can be done. It must be done.
© 2002 ContentWatch Inc. All rights reserved.