What's the Deal With "IMG SRC"?

Instant Regret

Want to be filled with instant regret? Want to instantly get scared of being put on some government list? Here's how in a few easy steps:

1. Go to Duckduckgo.com, Google Images, or any similar image search engine
2. Type in "IMG SRC"
3. Hit Enter
4. Sweat bullets

If you had the balls to do this (which I don't recommend), you probably noticed something extremely off-putting: the majority of the images that come up when you type "img src" are of children in their bathing suits, on clothing-optional beaches, or placed in any manner of other suggestive situation. It's not true CP per-say, but it's pretty damn close, and I'm sure any starving predator would love to get his hands on this little exploit--and many obviously already do. Even thinking about that makes me not want to write this, for fear that the information here will be used in the wrong way. But I feel this is something that needs attention brought to it. This is something that needs to be looked into because it is a real problem, and a fucking weird one that I can't make heads or tails of. Why is nobody talking about this? Let me explain something, first:

How'd You Find Out About this?

I found this through Twitter page Best of 4Chan, who posted this screenshot: 

After reading that, and the comments below which seemed to confirm it, I had to make sure it was legit--could something so revolting really be hiding under everybody's noses like that? I secured my browser, went incognito, bit the bullet and did it: sure enough, it worked, and I was out of that page almost as soon as I entered it. I'm a bit too pussy for this stuff; I don't trust that the Canadian government can't just bust onto my laptop whenever they want and sabotage my whole life if they really want to. I'm paranoid, my dudes. But I also have a hunger for justice! So now that that's off my chest...

IMG SRC?

IMG SRC is an abbreviation of the term "Image Source". It is an extremely commonly used html tag, used to implement images into web pages. So why in the hell are the majority of Duckduckgo, Google, and Yahoo images under IMG SRC borderline child porn? Is it something devious, or absolutely nothing at all? Look, I don't want to be the one to shout pedophile conspiracy, but...

It's a Mother Fucking Pedophile Conspiracy

But it might not be. The fact that the search term is so goddamn common is a scary thing, though. On one hand, of fucking course it's a common term. I've probably searched something similar recently because I've been learning web design, just as thousands upon thousands of others probably have. This is probably how it was stumbled upon at first. So how many of these searches are legit, and how many of them are creeps looking for some quick fap material? The answer is: who the fuck knows? Google probably has the statistics as to how many people who search IMG SRC on images versus on regular search, but I don't know how to get this data, or if they could even legally release it. They probably wouldn't. They're probably in on the whole goddamn thing. How the hell could this go unnoticed for so long?

Elsa Gate

It's hard not to think about the recent phenomenon known as Elsa Gate when considering this. While it was never proven that Elsa Gate videos were linked to pedophile rings, there was some sketchy evidence laid out on the /r/elsagate reddit, including encrypted messages in the comments that allegedly detailed the locations and times of meet-ups.

The /R/Elsagate & 4chan post

Upon discovering this disgusting exploit, I went and made posts on both 4chan board /b/ and Reddit's /R/Elsagate, which can be seen here. The 4chan post reached about two-hundred comments and went on for a few hours before disappearing, and the /r/elsagate post is at 16,000 views so far, with nearly 600 upvotes and 300 comments. To me, this is big. This shows significant interest in the subject, and despite many complaints that my title was too "clickbait-y" (I'm sorry, it is) and about the anti-Semitic statements in OP's post (but look at the bigger picture, people!), the majority of commentator's seemed shocked, worried, and eager to do all they could to get this reported.

Both posts turned out to be rather enlightening, and opened up new avenues and possibilities as to why searching IMG SRC leads to such sensitive material. The first of these theories...

Russian Image Hosting Website, IMGSRC.RU

Many potentially illegal or sketchy websites run from .ru servers based in Russia, I assume because it protects them in certain legal ways. One of these is apparently called IMGSRC.RU. IMGSRC is similar to 4chan, in that it hosts many different boards pertaining to many different tastes. One of those tastes happens to be children--the board is apparently filled with pedophiles sharing pictures of kids.

The second screenshot above suggests that the government is aware of this site, and it probably is. How could it not be with an exploit as obvious as this? But if that's the case, why haven't Google and DuckDuckGo and Yahoo done anything to block the problem? To protect the eyes of the innocent? There's safe search, okay, but I knew how to disable that almost the minute I knew how to use the internet. It's not hard. Forgetting for a second about all the perverts accessing this shit on purpose, a tech-savvy kid trying to build a website could easily stumble upon it! Putting restrictions on searches is murky territory for some, border-lining on unfair censorship, but I think every decent human being on earth can agree that this shit shouldn't be so easy to find. It shouldn't be floating around under a term like "IMG SRC". 

The Sijmen Ruwhof Article

As the R/Elsagate post started to gain traction, a user sent me a message containing a link to this article. This is a post from last December, going into large detail about the imgsrc.ru problem, and was very enlightening in my search for answers. Turns out, they've gotten into a ton of trouble over the years, and this problem is probably much more well known overseas. You can read the whole thing for yourself, which is full of website statistics and much more in depth than I'm willing to dive into. I mean, the writer is a damn security researcher--he knows what he's saying. The most interesting part to me is the recent update, which was added on February 14th:

This update says two important things:

1. Officials are aware of this website and issue, and are monitoring it--so that's good.
2. Nothing is being done about it despite the push, despite the huge amounts of child porn, despite the fact that it's so easily accessible on Google, despite the fact that two-thirds of the images on the site are stolen from kids social media pages and reposted

So Now What?

Well, I don't really know. If awareness spreads, perhaps something can be done about the problem faster. Youtube took their time to respond to Elsagate, but it seems to be dying down a little at least, now. Beyond reporting the site to those who you might see fit, I would take solace in the fact that this is a known thing by the government, that action has been taken against the site before, and that ongoing action does still take place. 

Thanks for reading.