In 2021, a global child pornography ring was discovered by law enforcement that had nearly one million subscribers who were operating in the Dark Net and members paid subscriptions in Bitcoin. The annual income was approximately $400 million which was generated by individual pedophiles around the world, violating innocent children and filming it and sharing it with thousands of others in a dark underground world.

During this session we will examine the various technologies used in child pornography rings including the Dark Net, Bulletproof Hosting, Peer to Peer, Virtual Private Network (VPN) and well-known apps and games such as Tik Tok, KIK, Facebook Messenger, Roblox, PUBG, and mass audience live streaming.

As part of this curriculum, we will explore who the pedophiles are, how they operate, as well as how they identify and connect with other pedophiles online. We will also explore several case studies of how law enforcement investigates and prosecutes global CSAM rings. We will look at innovative means that law enforcement has used to break through the dark web rings and how to get the pedophile to self-identify. We will look at how a child pornography ring operating in South Korea, Bulgaria, Thailand, and Australia will result in pedophiles being arrested in our own communities. Most important, we will discuss how technology has been developed to assist the public in identifying and reporting information to help locate and rescue the victims of CSAM.

Workshop led by Opal Singleton.

Opal Singleton is the President and CEO of Million Kids and serves as the Training and Outreach Coordinator for the Riverside County Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force. She has trained more than 250,000 government and individual leaders about labor trafficking, child sex trafficking, sextortion, child pornography and social media exploitation. She often appears on television and radio talk shows across the United States.

Opal is an Instructor at USC Price Safe Communities Institute and a Co-Instructor at the USC School of Social Work for the Los Angeles Police Department LEAD program. She is an Instructor at Los Angeles Fire Leadership Training Academy and has served on the Peace Officers Standardized Training panel to develop the training curriculum on human trafficking for law enforcement for the State of California. She also sits on the Board of Directors for Rapha House International in Cambodia, Thailand and Haiti.

Opal is the author and hosts two weekly radio shows. KTIE 590 AM broadcasts “Exploited: Crimes and Technology” throughout Southern California. “Exploited: Crimes against Humanity” is a weekly global internet human exploitation training program that broadcasts through Voice America to more than 170 countries.