Watching the watchers: Taskforce Argos and the evidentiary issues involved with infiltrating Dark Web child exploitation networks
| Author | Paul Bleakley |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X18801409 |
| Published date | 01 September 2019 |
| Date | 01 September 2019 |
Article
Watching the watchers:
Taskforce Argos and the
evidentiary issues involved
with infiltrating Dark Web
child exploitation networks
Paul Bleakley
University of New England, NSW, Australia
Abstract
As the kind of technology used by offenders advances, it has become increasingly nec-
essary for global law enforcement agencies to adopt proactive strategies in order to
effectively combat the threat posed by the organisation of child exploitation networks on
the Dark Web. In spite of concerns regarding the collection of evidence, Queensland
Police’s Taskforce Argos has cultivated a reputation for success in the covert infiltration
of online forums dedicated to child exploitation material, due largely to the relatively
loose restrictions placed on it, which allow officers to commit a wide range of criminal
acts whilst conducting controlled undercover operations.
Keywords
Child exploitation material, child pornography, policing, law enforcement, jurisdiction,
evidence
Introduction
Organised transnational criminal networks have proven to be one of the most significant
beneficiaries of the digital age. An individual who may not otherwise have an opportu-
nity to commit criminal offences is able to use the Internet to foster connections that
normalise their deviance and provide opportunities to commit actual, tangible transgres-
sions. More often than not, these transgressions continue to take place in the digital realm
in the form of consuming and sharing child pornography; on some occasions Dark Web
Corresponding author:
Paul Bleakley, University of New England, Library Road, Armidale, NSW, Australia 2350.
Email: pj.bleakley@gmail.com
The Police Journal:
Theory, Practice and Principles
2019, Vol. 92(3) 221–236
ªThe Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0032258X18801409
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forums can also facilitate transgression in the physical realm, by making connections
between consumers and producers of exploitation material, providing an opportunity for
consumers to transition into participation in the production of illicit material. Given the
constantly-evolving nature of the Internet, it has become increasingly incumbent on law
enforcement agencies to develop innovative strategies to match those of their online
adversaries. Development of such strategies is complicated by the rapid pace of tech-
nological advancement: no sooner do police settle on strategies to combat organised
crime on the Internet than offenders are able to engineer new digital security protocols
that allow them to continue their activities unabated. Difficulties for the investigation
of organised crime networks have become even more pronounced with the migration of
much of this criminal activity to the Dark Web, which is made up of a series of
interconnected peer-to-peer networks that are not indexed by conventional search
engines or accessible by the ordinary Internet user. Forums and file-sharing websites
hosted on the Dark Web operate in a way that makes it challenging for police and
Internet Service Providers to identify users,ortoproactivelyshutdownwebsitesthat
facilitate criminal activity (Broadhurst et al., 2014). By using web browsers that allow
use of the Dark Web like Tor and Freenet to obscure their online activity, criminal
users are afforded a sense of anonymity that allows them ease of access to a range of
criminal networks, facilitating illicit behaviours from drug trafficking to child exploi-
tation material (Broadhurst et al., 2014).
Amid the wide variety of illicit activities facilitated by the Dark Web, the distribution
of child exploitation material stands apart as a matter of serious concern for law enforce-
ment agencies. Not only does the Internet allow individuals to share pornographic
material with only a few keystrokes, the establishment of deviant communities on the
Dark Web has exponentially increased the risk for vulnerable children as demand rises
for the supply of original child exploitation material (Oswell, 2006). To some degree, the
increasing accessibility of Dark Web platforms has allowed individuals to meet this
supply with a sense of security, and the belief that their actions are imperceptible to law
enforcement agencies concerned with stemming the flow of child exploitation material
on the Internet. Before conducting arrests and prosecuting suspect ed offenders, it is
necessary for policing organisations to first identify those involved in the clandestine
online communities in which criminal activity takes place, and particularly those that are
directly engaged in the abuse of children for the purposes of creating child exploitation
material. As a means of obtaining the evidence required to support a successful prosecu-
tion of otherwise anonymous users on the Dark Web, police claim that it is essential to
infiltrate online forums in an attempt to identify both abusers and victims; to do so,
police argue that it is necessary to establish a controlled surveillance operation in which
officers covertly act as administrators or moderators of illicit forums (Lusthaus, 2012). In
Queensland, any operation that is conducted using undercover tactics and may require an
officer to engage in illegal activity in the course of their investigation is heavily regulated
and subject to considerable scrutiny. Described as ‘controlled operations’, investigations
of this nature conducted by Taskforce Argos often require officers to participate in the
distribution of child exploitation material in order to maintain cover and effectively
entrap as many offenders as they possibly can. Although these actions are carried out
with the goal of capturing sex offenders, police operations involving the dissemination of
222 The Police Journal: Theory, Practice and Principles 92(3)
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