Would you know how to access the dark web?

[NoFriendsNoEnemies]

Just that.

Whenever someone appears to be convicted of child abuse, accessing violent porn etc they always seem to trot out the cliche that they came across the images by mistake or that they were downloaded to them when they were downloading something else.

And for some obscure reason they always have their band of loyal supporters who believe them.

But quite apart from the fact that it’s obviously lies, I was always under the impression that to access that kind of material you had to visit the dark web, and so accessing that kind of thing in error is in fact not possible.

But how many people would actually know how to access the dark web? And if they wouldn’t how could anyone believe that these kinds of things could be stumbled upon in error?

Would you know how to access the dark web? Not for nefarious purposes obviously, but just in general. If you wanted to access it, would you know how?

No and I wouldn't want to. Never even heard of Tor before reading this thread.

@jytdtysrht

No The dark web is just for criminals of various varieties.

Read much of this thread then ?

There's a dark web? No idea and judging by these comments glad no idea. Why isn't it just closed down

@Picklypickles

I wouldn't have a clue, didn't even realise it was a real thing and not really sure what exactly the "Dark Web" is! I think I've heard the term on the telly or something and just assumed it was dodgy websites where you could buy dodgy stuff or something like that!

Me too! I didn’t realise it was a separate thing at all so no I don’t know how to download a different browser other than maybe looking in the App Store??

Yes, but it's part of my work to know.
It's also part of my work to realise that people don't accidentally download thousands of images of child abuse by accident. I think for most family members etc it's disbelief and denial, most come around when evidence is presented at court, some don't. This is however also true of contact offences, I have seen women disown their own offspring in favour of husbands etc even for those convicted of very serious sexual offences, there seem to be a minority who very readily victim blame or use all kinds of mental gymnastics to justify why it either was ok or simply didn't happen at all.

I know you have to use the Tor browser, but I wouldn't know what to do after that - I'd have to look it up.

@justasking111

Apart from porn what's on the dark web that cannot be on Google I wonder.

1. Porn can be and is on Google.
2. The "dark web" is just another variant of the world wide web. All manner of illegal stuff can be found, if you want to buy drugs or guns or just a list of people's personal details (likely yours are on there!) to set up false identities you go there. It also contains legitimate things like BBC News (here: www.bbcnewsd73hkzno2ini43t4gblxvycyac5aw4gnv7t2rccijh7745uqd.onion/ - but the link won't work in a normal broswer) which allows people to access it from countries where they are banned for spreading "fake news" like Russia invading Ukraine.

Yes, I've been on the deep web, but it's quite boring and most of the pages don't load. It looks like the way the Internet was in the 1990s for the most part. It's very easy to avoid dodgy stuff and people looking for dodgy stuff will have had to have searched quite purposely and found sites which will actually load because sites change their addresses so often. I don't believe anyone who says they've done it innocently and it wasn't their fault etc.

Most of the stuff is drug or card fraud related.

Yes. My husband is in IT and has shown me. Neither of us actually access it though.

Yes I can access the dark web haven’t done it for a long time!!

It’s never accidental - you don’t accidentally click on or download the child porn images…whoever believes that you can accidentally find it is incredibly for lack of a better word daft

Nope, I can barely access my emails.

If you spent a day on Reddit you’d figure it out
Tor browser or something ? Then sub Reddit’s

Not a scooby.

No.
I do ponder though how many people do.

Do you mean the deep web or the dark web? The deep web just means everything not indexed by search engines (i.e. most of the internet). In other words you have to know the specific location you are going to. Most of what goes on on the deep web is not illegal. The illegal stuff that goes on there (such as contract killings, illegal porn, drug trade) is referred to as the dark web. So you'd need to know the specific location to go to for that. I don't know any of those locations! I can certainly access the deep web though. Anyone can.

*"I also though don't understand why if it's able to be accessed, it can't just be totally shut down?!

Someone / something must control it?"*

It was created by the US navy and is almost exclusively funded by various US government departments. Onion routing (which underpins the Tor browser/the 'dark web') was invented by Paul Syverson at the US Naval Research Laboratory so that government agents could travel online and share information anonymously. The gov opened it up to the public because, otherwise, anyone with Tor would have been easily identifiable as a gov agent. They now pay to maintain it so that they can communicate with people in the field etc. Sounds fantastical, but it's true.

Ordinarily, you have to buy a domain name from an official source to set up a website, and if you break the rules, the registrar can shut you down or help the police trace you. Anyone can set up a website anonymously and without permission on the dark web, so it's more difficult to shut it down/trace its source.

As others have noted, you can't stumble across stuff on Tor because it doesn't have a typical search engine like google or bing. You have to know the specific name of the website you want to visit, and the names aren't easily memorable - they're random strings of letters and numbers. So, you can't put in 'buy cocaine' and pull up a drug-selling site, for example. You'd have to type in the address of the site you are looking for, and it's likely to be something like le4iub257732vyheku5174634gfebjag68hufkchjhg6546.onion/
Nobody would know it without being told it. Someone who wants to find child abuse images on Tor will typically ingratiate themselves into the graces of other heinous individuals on chat forums, who will then share the address privately, like a password.

Not everyone who uses it is dodgy; many use it to circumvent government censorship regimes that block sites for political reasons. Some of its first users were civil liberties campaigners like The Electronic Frontier Group.

No idea! I am a bit thick when it comes to technical stuff anyway but I have this image of the screen turning black and sinister music coming on. I am sure it’s nothing like that- I don’t really want to ever find out, I imagine it’s a pit of depravity

Yes. There are perfectly legitimate reasons for using it

Love threats like this where you learn that there is a new dark world out there, you got me really curious here but can you access the dark web to search for government classify files, would I will get into trouble if I were to find out because that will be my cup of tea

@lovelyluvvy No not to you. Was answering a pp who asked why couldn't the dark Web just be deleted.

Very interesting, thank you for sharing this information

Also, scumbags don't have to go through Tor to access child abuse images. Often, they're shared via registered 'normal' websites. However, the sharers are taking a big risk sharing, so don't give them away for nothing. They usually want something in return as well as assurances that the receiver is depraved enough to be trusted to not 'shop' the site to the NCA. So, the receiver will usually have either paid to view, shared child abuse images themselves (the most crafty sites ask for 'novel' images), or purposefully built relationships with other perverted shitbags before getting access. Nobody is having child abuse images chucked at them for nothing online.

No - but given so many posters on MN don't seem to have a clue how to use googs, what were you expecting?

"Monzeitia"

No, you wouldn't get into trouble. The Tor browser allows you to travel around online under a kind of invisibility cloak. Nobody can see where you've been or where you're going to; you're anonymous.

No. But I know several people who do know.

I have no interest in guns, bombs, porn, or illegal drugs, so I don't need to access it.