Hacker News Reader

Comment by cyberferret | Hacker News Reader

Just to clarify - the police department didn't create the site from scratch. They busted the original owner of it, then took over the site 'as is' and ran it for a while longer to gather evidence of other users, then shut the whole thing down.

No different from cops everywhere knowing where a drug shipment is landing, then setting up a sting operation around that to see who comes along to collect, and then pouncing. (Rather than intercepting the drugs mid shipment or before it leaves).

View on HN

That's not a fair comparison since in that scenario the police don't interact with any end user and are not distribution anything themselves.

This is more akin to a police going under cover and selling drugs on the street, hoping to get near the supplier.

...and in doing so, becoming the largest dealer... for a year.

In this case surely getting the producers is significantly outweighs being a dealer for a bit.

>The Argos commander, Insp Jon Rouse, said it had led to “significant rescues of children globally” and the arrest of “serious criminal child sex offenders”.

Yes, which is something a lot of advocates has been pushing for. Put the massive resource currently allocated at blocking and use it to go after the producers. The consumers, the technology, the platforms, all those are of limited interest when the real goal is to rescues of children and stopping sex offenders. With limited resources police should prioritize efforts where it has the biggest positive effect on people and not where it has the biggest political effect.

For a year... the largest dealer. Imagine if the DEA secretly busted a whole cartel, and turned into the largest producer and exporter of cocaine for a year!!!

Completely different.

>Imagine if the DEA secretly busted a whole cartel, and turned into the largest producer

The police did not produce any material.

Trying to compare illegal drugs to child exploitation is absurd.

Unless you’re one of the kids in those pics I guess... then the harm is easier to see. Plus drugs almost only ever involve consenting adults!!!

>In this case surely getting the producers is significantly outweighs being a dealer for a bit.

I agree. The producers were abusing children, lots of them. Running the site allowed the police to identify a lot of the producers, so they can be arrested and locked up.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com