The Elephant in the Room: Addressing Child Exploitation and Going Dark

By Susan Hennessey

There is an unacknowledged Venn diagram at the heart of the Going Dark debate. Circle A represents crimes for which various manifestations of technology pose extreme challenges to law enforcement investigations: for example, computer offenses that take place exclusively online or technology-based narcotics trafficking and money laundering. Circle B represents crimes for which society demands an exceptionally high level of effective prevention, investigation, and prosecution: violent offenses with identifiable victims like murder or rape. This is not to say Circle A crimes are unimportant—only that, taken alone, society is more inclined to view the security benefits of robust encryption as outweighing the net harms. Likewise, it is certainly true that investigation of Circle B crimes can be impeded by encryption and other technology. But more often than not, law enforcement has at least some other avenues of obtaining evidence, such as from a crime scene or from witnesses.

Washington, DC: Hoover Institution, 2017. 40p.