Some sites on the dark web, such as the now-closed Silk Road 2, have imposed strict anti-child abuse measures to stop such content being viewed and sold online.īut much of the traffic to these websites, which cannot be indexed by Google or visited by any browser other than Tor, may not be entirely from humans. But it's hampering the rights of children and creating a place where paedophiles can act with impunity." Owen, himself a fan of Tor, said: "Before we did this study, it was certainly my view that the dark net is a good thing. Away from child porn and the sale of drugs and guns, dark websites can be used as a means for whistle-blowers to speak anonymously, and for sources to speak to journalists without their identity being known or conversation monitored. The findings, reported by the BBC, will make uncomfortable reading for defenders of the dark web and Tor, the web browser used to visit its sites. "When we found this out we were stunned," Owen admitted. Owen found that more than four-in-five visits to dark websites were for the purpose of viewing child pornography, accounting for more than fives times as much traffic as any other category received. Presented at the annual Chaos Computer Congress in Germany, the study was conducted by Dr Gareth Owen, a computer science researcher at University of Portsmouth. An example of this is content only accessible by using the Tor software and anonymity network, which while protecting privacy, is often associated with illicit activities. The dark web is a section of the internet that is not indexed by search engines such as Google, and not easily navigated to using a standard web browser.Īccessing the dark web requires specialised knowledge and software tools.
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