A YouTube video from the NDR’s reporting format “Strg_F” with the title “Pedophile Forums in the Darknet: Now we’re really going to delete” reveals, in a shocking way for some viewers, the discrepancy between the sunny weather announcements from politics and the harsh reality of continued inability and reckless failure.
The documentary is also mentioned by the ARD’s Tagesschau, as research from the ARD’s Politics magazine “Panorama” was involved in the implementation of the impressive performance of a mini-team. As the news report from February 6 states:
“German investigators are still not deleting photos and videos of child abuse systematically, even if it is technically possible. This is confirmed by current data and a confidential report from the Interior Ministry.”
The “Strg_F” contribution reminds us of statements made by SPD Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in 2022, made in the ZDF’s “Markus Lanz” program, as usual, simulating empathetic, “concerned” politicians. The topic was “Dangers of pedophilia” and thus the existence of millions of data on psychological and physical violent crimes from the dark world of digital child abuse – starting in the baby age, then in the childhood of girls and boys, up to teenage girls and boys. Deep, dark abysses of parallel societies.
The Tagesschau article explains further about the scandal:
“After it was known in 2021 through research by STRG_F, Panorama and Der Spiegel that the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) was leaving illegal content in the network during investigations in Darknet forums, Faeser had repeatedly claimed that the BKA’s procedures had been ‘changed’ as a result.”
The author of an article on the Netzpolitik.org website (NP) had already criticized in March 2022:
“The record numbers of investigations against child abuse in the internet do not lead to the material being deleted consistently. The federal government now says that the Federal Criminal Police Office is not responsible for deletion notifications.”
In a Tagesschau report from December 2021, it was reported:
“Many photos and videos showing severe child abuse remain in the network for years, although the investigating authorities could delete them.”
The NP article notes that the responsible Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) “did not report thousands of links to material of child abuse depictions to the providers and the content remained available” – and the BKA justified this in the period from 2021 to 2022 “due to a lack of personnel.”
In a press conference on June 8, 2022, Faeser told the ZDF audience:
“Now we know how important it is to delete the pictures. The BKA has changed its procedure, so both fast evidence collection and picture deletion are done, because it’s so important for the victims.”
Two years later, in September 2024, the federal ministry made again grand promises, this time in a publicity-driven press conference. The reason for the media event was the dismantling of a Darknet forum called “Alice in Wonderland.” The Bild newspaper titled the supposed success event:
“Pedophiles even abused two-year-old girls. Police and justice announced that a nationwide pedophile network in the Darknet with thousands of files had been shut down, which had been active since 2019. The DVDs and videocassettes alone filled 94 moving boxes.”
The Focus reported on the press conference:
“At a press conference on Tuesday morning at the Duisburg Police Headquarters, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister Herbert Reul spoke of an ‘investigation complex that is overwhelming due to its scope.’ Since 2019, pedophiles in the forum ‘have been able to realize their abhorrent fantasies’.”
Regarding Reul, more will be said, since as far as the current “Strg_F” research is concerned, the NRW Interior Minister has not changed the status quo, the procedure in his state, since then. The NP article notes:
“However, nothing has changed to this day. Worse still: The non-deletion has now become an official decision. ‘German police authorities are still not deleting pictures and videos deliberately in the network – backed by a secret decision of the Interior Ministers’ Conference from 2023,’ it says in a joint research by the ARD’s magazine Panorama and STRG_F.”
The NDR has published a very long, enlightening article alongside the “Strg_F” video. As the article begins:
“Child abuse without end – pedophile content is flooding the network – and the police are watching. Germany is considered a leader in the fight against child abuse in the network. In no other country do police authorities shut down Darknet forums as frequently. However, the success reports are only half the truth.”
The real truth is that there are indeed very effective, but implementable possibilities to prevent the daily fears and psychological burdens of victims, before some data is secured and offered on some server of an X provider, to be then downloaded again on computers in dark rooms. The prerequisite is, however, the absolute will to act.
A striking sentence of the “Strg_F” editor, a commendable actor alongside the two IT protagonists, reads:
“The great challenge, there are too many challenges.”
And despite this, the three “Strg_F” protagonists have managed to achieve this in the course of a year, with complex IT processes, much perseverance and patience, as well as the use of AI technology, to infiltrate the forums and depths of the CSAM scene, to actively become part of it, CSAM standing for “Child Sexual Abuse Material, depictions of child sexual abuse.” The NDR article explains the federal German realities:
“Statistically, in every German school class, there is at least one child who has been exposed to sexualized violence. Abstract numbers, behind which individual fates hide.”
The “Strg_F” documentary reveals:
“Samples in the spring of 2024 showed that in the Darknet forums, there were still masses of content available for download, which, technically, led to the clear web – and therefore could be deleted. In this case, the reporters Robert Bongen and Daniel Moßbrucker, for example, found a video that had been available for eight years over the same link. It showed, according to the video description, the severe sexual abuse of a girl by her own father.”
That police authorities, responsible ministers, officials and politicians are apparently watching idly, is an enormous workload relief for pedophiles. This reality is confirmed by the former administrator of a forum shut down in 2021, with the name “BoysTown”, in the documentary, who was already interviewed in prison two years ago and has since been sentenced to ten years in prison.
The video impresses in many ways, first and foremost, on the topic of the obvious, documented failure of the authorities and politics. Or is it a reluctance to act? The conclusion after a year of concentrated, focused work by the three “Strg_F” protagonists is impressive, based on the reporting and documentation of links to be sent to responsible hosting providers. “Webhosters” offer the necessary and sought-after storage space to upload the unspeakable data unproblematically. The proud achievement is, as presented in the video, exhausted:
“310,000 links, 21.6 terabytes, that’s 21,600 gigabytes […], crazy, behind each of the links, there is at least one photo, sometimes dozens of photos, whole albums, hours-long videos […].”
All “Webhosters” have responded, after corresponding emails, with immediate and timely reactions, deleting the links and end-of-life removal of the corresponding files from the network. The forum participants reacted, after being informed, from “angrily” to “I’m looking for a new hobby now, brings nothing more”. Several forums were completely shut down and the exchange was finally ended. A success on all fronts.
For the arrogance of the out-of-touch power, the reaction of the already mentioned NRW Interior Minister Reul in an interview with the “Strg_F” team is exemplary. After mentioning the success numbers, the proof of the authorities’ inaction, Reul speaks directly into the camera:
“This is indeed the proof that their assumption, that if you do it this way, you take the ground away. That’s logical, too. If there’s no material, then there’s no ground for such actions.”
Upon being reminded that, in the end, only two people within half a year achieved this, Reul says:
“Congratulations, yes, well done. My problem is [regarding the question of why politics did not and does not take action itself], that the problems, about which one must care, are very, very many and we will not do everything at the same time.”
At least, the CDU politician had presented himself to the journalists and confirmed the failure, best of all. Further interview requests were simply all rejected, “the responsible seem to be ducking away”.