The Dark Net (33 page)

p.161
‘There is violence and corruption . . .’ RSA Commission on Illegal Drugs, Communities and Public Policy, ‘The Supply of Drugs Within the UK’,
Drugscope
(
http://www.drugscope.org.uk/Resources/Drugscope/Documents/PDF/Good%20Practice/supply.pdf
).

p.161
‘The longer the chain . . .’ Peter Reuter, ‘Systemic Violence in Drug Markets’,
Crime, Law and Social Change
, September 2009, vol.52, issue 3; Martin, J., ‘Misguided Optimism: the Silk Road closure and the War on Drugs’,
The Conversation
,
http://theconversation.com/misguided-optimism-the-silk-road-closure-and-the-war-on-drugs-18937
(accessed 20 April 2014).

p.162
‘There are approximately 7,000 organised crime . . .’ Daly and Sampson,
Narcomania
, p.303.

p.162
‘Although reliable figures for the . . .’
https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/WDR2012/WDR_2012_web_small.pdf
.

Chapter 6
Lights, Web-camera, Action

p.164
‘The fifteen most visited porn sites . . .’ The following is based on the Alexa Ranking, which ranks websites in terms of their global popularity (a combined score of both page views and unique visitors – in brackets in the list below). They are frequently updated, and were correct as of May 2014. I also searched for the volume of amateur videos available on each of the sites:

p.164
‘The Free Speech Coalition estimated . . .’ Revenue hasn’t completely collapsed in the professional porn industry, of course. But the cost of production has tumbled. Back in the early 1980s it cost over $200,000 to produce a standard professional porn film; when video taping turned up in the mid-eighties, the costs fell – but by the mid-nineties a professional porn film usually cost $100,000. Towards the later nineties, some pro-am companies were producing films for closer to $20,000 – roughly what it costs now for an average, professional movie. (Although there were still enormous one:
Pirates II
, the most costly porno ever made, had a budget of $8 million.) Figures on porn usage and the size of the industry overall vary a lot. It is a very controversial subject. In 2007, the
Observer
quoted that the industry was worth $13 billion in the US, the most commonly quoted figure. In 2012, CNBC said the industry was worth $14 billion in the US. Top Ten Reviews estimates it to currently be worth $57 billion wordwide. In the US, between 2001 and 2007, internet porn went from a one-billion-dollar industry to a three-billion-dollar industry. See the following:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/dec/16/film.usa
;
http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics-pg2.html
;
http://www.toptenreviews.com/2-6-04.html
;
http://www.socialcostsofpornography.com/Doran_Industry_Size_Measurement_Social_Costs.pdf
;
http://www.thefreeradical.ca/Toronto_the_naughty.htm
;
http://www.overthinkingit.com/2009/03/26/the-adult-film-industry-rediscovers-its-balls/2/
.

p.164
‘In the 1980s, users of . . .’ ‘Which was to have a private chat wherein you would type in various acts that a 13-year-old boy would want to do with a 13-year-old girl.’ ‘BBS life in the 1980s’ by Mr Pez,
http://textfiles.com/history/golnar.txt
.

p.164
‘The first erotic stories Usenet group . . .’
http://www.asstr.org/~apuleius/asshfaq.html#2
.

p.165
‘Porn is now estimated . . .’ McAnulty, R. and Burette, M.,
Sex and Sexuality
, vol.1;
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1998-03-28/lifestyle/9803270925_1_entertainment-online-video
, p.269;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23030090
.

p.165
‘Jennifer was the very first . . .’ Senft, T. M.,
Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Networks
, p.44.

p.165
‘At its peak, four million . . .’ ‘Behind the Scenes with Jennifer Ringley’, promo for
Web Junk Presents . . . 40 Greatest Internet Superstars
, 18 March 2007,
http://www.spike.com/video-clips/po0d6t/behind-the-scenes-with-jennifer-ringley
(accessed 4 December 2013).

p.165
‘In 1998 she divided her . . .’ Green, L.,
The Internet: An Introduction to New Media
,
http://www.yorku.ca/robb/docs/camgi.pdf
.

p.165
‘They included several spoof JenniCam . . .’
http://www.naturistplace.com/wnl-0101.htm
.

p.166
‘Camming was becoming a gainful . . .’
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/19/national/19kids.ready.html?pagewanted=7&_r=0&ei=5090&en=aea51b3919b2361a&ex=1292648400&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss
.

p.167
‘Today there are probably around . . .’ 50,000 is the closest I’ve got to an accurate estimate. It was provided by the administrator of a camgirl support community. There are also a certain number of camgirls from Eastern Europe and South America, and from South East Asia. Chaturbate has recently stopped accepting girls from the Philippines, for fear that they are being exploited.

p.167
‘According to the
New York Times
. . .’
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/22/technology/intimacy-on-the-web-with-a-crowd.html?adxnnl=1&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1394884188-8+B9Okpt1 TokwE/tHhXoAw
;
http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/23/4761246/cam-sex-is-booming-business-for-porn-industry
.

p.167
‘There is even a vibrant . . .’ One of them is called WeCamGirls. It started up in 2012. That year, the site had around 100,000 visitors. In 2013 it was more than twice that. It currently has over 3,000 active members.

p.168
‘She then joined Chaturbate . . .’
http://www.wecamgirls.com/articles/in-the-spotlight-with-cliche/
.

p.168
‘“I guess I’m a real person” . . .’ ‘Labours of Love: Netporn, Web 2.0 and the Meanings of Amateurism’,
New Media & Society
, vol.12, no.8, 2010.

p.168
‘“It’s a better kind of porn” . . .’ Attwood, F.,
Porn.com
, p.139,
http://nms.sagepub.com/content/early/2010/06/08/1461444810362853.full.pdf
.

p.168
‘Around the world there are . . .’
http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Where-World-Hottest-Social-Networking-Countries/1008870
.

p.169
‘Some psychologists think that social . . .’ Ma, M., ‘Understanding the Psychology of Twitter’,
Psychology Today
, 27 March 2009;
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-tao-innovation/200903/understanding-the-psychology-twitter
(accessed December 5 2013);
http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00439/full#h2
.

p.169
‘Sharing our every intimacy is . . .’
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-tao-innovation/200903/understanding-the-psychology-twitter
; Panek et al., ‘Mirror or Megaphone? How Relationships Between Narcissism and Social Networking Site Use Differ on Facebook and Twitter,’
Computers in Human Behaviour
, vol.29;
http://www.ipearlab.org/media/publications/Panek_Nardis_Konrath_2013.pdf
;
http://www.jcr-admin.org/files/pressPDFs/112712180022_Stephen_Article.pdf
.

p.169
‘She records young people spending . . .’ Turkle, S.
Alone Together
, p.180.

p.170
‘Pew Research’s 2013 study . . .’ ‘Prevalence and Characteristics of Youth Sexting: A National Study’, published 19 September 2011,
http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/02/11/main-report-30/
; ‘Basically . . . porn is everywhere’, p.28.

p.170
‘That’s not to say young . . .’ boyd, d.,
It’s Complicated
, p.57.

p.170
‘According to a 2014 YouGov . . .’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2575772/A-nation-amateur-porn-stars-One-five-age-40-sex-camera-30-taken-naked-photos.html
;
http://blog.htc.com/2013/08/the-selfie-phenomenon/
.

p.170
‘Of those who said that . . .’ ‘Half of the UK Has Joined the Selfie Craze Creating Over 35 Million Selfies a Month’,
PRNewsWire.com
, 13 August 2013,
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/half-of-the-uk-has-joined-the-selfie-craze-creating-over-35-million-selfies-a-month-219364031.html
(accessed 3 December 2013).

p.170
‘Sharing images of ourselves . . .’
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/05/opinion-naked-sexting/
.

p.170
‘Viewers respond – sometimes positively . . .’ Like most online communities, there are rules: ‘no random porn dumps’, ‘post pictures of
yourself!’
and of course, ‘be respectful to each other’.

p.172
‘In 2011, a Facebook group . . .’ Facebook was originally called Facemash. Mark Zuckerberg and his university friends wanted to rate the pictures of female students they’d managed to grab – without permission, of course – from the Harvard University files. Facemash placed a photo of female students next to each other and asked users to vote on who they thought was the best looking, with an algorithm slowly pushing certain girls up or down the list. ‘One thing is certain,’ wrote Zuckerberg on his personal blog at the time, ‘and that’s that I’m a jerk for making this site. Oh well, someone had to do it eventually.’ He was right. Within four hours there had been 22,000 visits to his site.

p.172
‘At the moment of writing. . .’
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/facebook-shuts-down-most-beautiful-teen-page/
;
http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/cutest-teens-2013-facebook-page-taken-down-1.1540454
;
https://www.facebook.com/CutestTeensOfficialPage?fref=ts
.

p.173
‘We are already thirty minutes late . . .’ Vex wears grey knee-length socks, grey knickers and a grey top with her midriff showing. So does Blath. Auryn wears something similar but in black.

p.181
‘But there are other girls . . .’
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1hq5t9/
.

p.181
‘“Have you heard of this” . . .’ While I was writing this chapter, Chaturbate started accepting Bitcoin.

p.185
‘The growing volume of sexually . . .’ Citron, D. K. and Franks, M., ‘Criminalising Revenge Porn’,
http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2424&context=fac_pubs
.

p.185
‘It was found that he had . . .’
https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-kamala-d-harris-announces-arrest-revenge-porn-website-operator
.

p.186
‘Similar things are happening in . . .’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2175591/Is-YOUR-child-sending-sex-texts-school.html#ixzz26L5qLbJh
;
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/us/27 sexting.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
. The statistics are cited in Citron and Franks, ‘Criminalising Revenge Porn’.

p.186
‘Jessica Logan from Ohio committed . . .’ Albin, K., ‘Bullies in a Wired World: The Impact of Cyberspace Victimization on Adolescent Mental Health and the Need for Cyberbullying Legislation in Ohio’,
Journal of Law and Health
, Vol.25, Issue 1, pp.155–90.

p.186
‘In another American high school . . .’ ‘3 Juveniles Accused of Sexually Exploiting Female Classmates’,
http://www.newschannel5.com/story/21890716/3-juveniles-accused-of-sexually-exploiting-female-classmates
.

p.187
‘In his famous 1990 article . . .’ Howard Rheingold, ‘Teledildonics: Reach out and Touch Someone’;
http://janefader.com/teledildonics-by-howard-rheingold-mondo-2000-1990/
.

p.189
‘“We’re not a community” . . .’
http://twitlonger.com/show/n_1s0rnva
, by @thecultofleo.

Chapter 7
The Werther Effect

p.192
‘Eighteen per cent of US . . .’
http://www.pewinternet.org/2011/02/28/peer-to-peer-health-care-2/
.

p.192
‘Studies consistently find that speaking . . .’
http://www.mind.org.uk/media/418956/Peer-Support-Executive-Summary-Peerfest-2013.pdf
, p.2;
http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-health-a-z/P/peer-support/
. See also Mental Health Foundation,
The Lonely Society?

p.192
‘Arguably the first “pro” self-harm . . .’
http://ash.notearthday.org/charter.html
; a.s.h. is sometimes called a website, but it is in fact a Usenet
alt.*
group hierarchy group, which has no central authority, meaning it is difficult to close down.

p.193
‘The first two posts on a.s.h. . . .’ Incidentally, this is one of the great myths about suicides. The rate of suicide in the US and most of the Northern Hemisphere is lower in December than any other month. There are several excellent academic studies that debunk this myth. The two halves of this quote were technically separate posts, but are considered to be part of the ‘founding charter’ of a.s.h.

p.193
‘Today there are hundreds of . . .’ Beals would later explain that a.s.h. became something that he’d never anticipated.
http://www.zenithcity news.com/010411/feature.htm
.

p.193
‘The number has steadily increased . . .’ ‘Self-Injury and the Internet: Reconfiguring the Therapeutic Community’, in
RESET
, vol.1, no.2, 2013.