Whenever one connects to the internet it’s like deep sea diving: the deeper you go the darker it gets, until it brings you closer to the deathly abyss from which there is no escape. The internet has brought many positives to our society, but with the positives also came many unknowns. Entering certain areas of the world wide web is like embarking on a journey into unknown territory or like walking blindly into a minefield. Things can explode at any point and nightmares can sprout out of Pandora’s box, while we stand by, unable to control them. Concerns about the internet and social media are everywhere: news headlines, documentaries, blogs, social media. There is no escape. Yet we are just scratching the surface. The internet is responsible for vast amounts of serious criminal activity, including the sale of unregulated medicines, the exploitation and abuse of women and children and the abuse of animals. Despite herculean efforts to police and regulate the virtual world, more could be done to ensure that it becomes a safer space for everybody. The virtual world should be policed and regulated with the same thoroughness and toughness as the real world if we want to find a way out of the darkness and come back to the surface safe and sound.

As we take a deep dive into this abyss, one of the first things that we might encounter is people searching for quick and easy fixes to their body image issues. Many find themselves searching for weight loss drugs online and many end up inundated by thousands of target adverts that seem to be sprouting out of nowhere. Many have also been scammed in their attempt to find a solution to their weight loss problems, and many have been trying to get illegal drugs on the dark web. The on-line trade in unregulated medicines and illegal drugs has become an area of high concern when discussing the dark web. In the real world, there are specific sets of rules that have to be followed before medicines are made available. This is to ensure that no one is subject to harm through taking medicines that have not been prescribed. In the UK this includes comprehensive legislation which is enforced by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). However, in the virtual world it is much easier to find a way around the rules, putting many people’s health at risk. All one needs to do is search for whatever they are looking for and somehow, magically, a link might pop up taking them to the right place, a dark place where scammers are waiting to steal large sums of money and take advantage of vulnerable people.

The internet needs more rigorous global policing. The UK government strengthened its regulations for on-line medicine distribution in July 2015, introducing legislation stating that “anybody selling medicine on-line had to register with MHRA.” However, 66% of countries do not have strict regulation on on-line sales. This means people in the UK can still access medicines that have not gone through the necessary background checks, as they can buy directly from other countries. To add insult to injury, availability of illegal drugs on the dark web continues to increase, in 2016 research found over 50 online marketplaces on the dark web that trade illegal drugs. Not only were there more places but demand was increasing, with revenues doubling between 2013 and 2016. There has been a dramatic increase in the number of people buying them. Many studies have found that in the U.S there has been a significant rise in substance abuse admissions from drugs that should be prescribed by a medical professional. This most likely stems from increasing access to the internet in U.S households where these drugs are being made readily available. As there is not enough regulation implemented on the internet globally, citizen wellbeing is increasingly in more danger.

African cats, snakes, monkeys, dogs. One might think that all they have to do is go to a pet shop and buy one. But what if I told you that another illegal on-line activity which can result in huge suffering is the trading of exotic animals? How is this possible? The problem can be traced back to the lack of stringent regulations on this trade, which means dealers are usually able to find a way around the rules. National Geographic in 2020 reported that the number of illegal wildlife adverts on social media has grown. Christopher Casacci was one of many people who sold illegal wildlife, running a website called Exoticcubs.com, where he trafficked African cats. He avoided a few of the regulations by registering some of the animals as domesticated breeds. We should remember that there are many other dealers like Casacci, who are finding ways round the rules. These animals suffer horrendous treatment, often denied food, water and space and transported in appalling ways which can result in slow painful death and decline. This puts not only the animals in danger but also the buyer, as these exotic animals are not meant to be domesticated and therefore their behaviour could potentially turn violent. The internet and the Covid pandemic also created the perfect storm for abuse in illegal puppy farms, a huge on-line unregulated selling space which led to huge rises in demand for animal sanctuary charities. Aside from the cramped and unsanitary conditions, it is not uncommon for the puppy to be separated from its mother too early causing long term damage. Global leaders must bring in more legislation and establish animal welfare regulators at both a country and global level able to infiltrate the selling of exotic animals to try keep everyone safe and stop the unnecessary and cruel violation of animal rights.

Perhaps most worryingly however is that the dark web has become a breeding ground for sex offenders, paedophiles and sex traffickers. The heinous abuse of women and girls, which is exacerbated by the dark web. Although all genders can be subject to sexual abuse on the internet, it has been proven on numerous occasions that women and girls are more likely to fall victim to many things such as non-consensual images or videos, threats including those of a sexual nature, rape and stalking. This is why the on-line world must be more closely monitored and regulated. Four in ten young women have been sent unsolicited sexual images on-line and with the growing popularity of dating apps it has been found that 19% of women have been threatened with physical harm. If we do not overcome this issue of internet regulation more and more women are going to be affected both mentally and physically by sexual abuse on-line. Moreover, on-line crimes are much more life threatening and increasing in impact as the dark web has developed.

The human trafficking of women and girls for sexual exploitation has increased dramatically via the use of the internet: the UN recently found 40% of sex trafficking victims are recruited online. The ways of exploiting women have become more sophisticated and more serious with dark web exploitation moving into areas such as live chat scams, remote control trafficking and the prevalence of on-line marketplaces. In 2020 over 80% of sex trafficking prosecutions involved on-line advertising. The obvious solution to prevent illegal behaviour on social media platforms would be to simply remove them. Unfortunately, these multi-billion-dollar companies are driven by profits rather than social purpose. Apple announced in 2019 that if Facebook continued to ignore the ongoing problem of human trafficking on their platform, Apple would remove Facebook from the AppStore. However, this solution would also result in Instagram and Twitter being removed, so not only would it cost Facebook millions but it also would have had the same effect on Apple. This threat was never executed. So, were these just empty words? Considering that Facebook remains on the AppStore, I would undoubtedly argue, yes. 

People may also argue that you simply cannot regulate everything in life, as even before the internet such issues existed. The issue now however is that the internet has intensified this problem and most people do not have the technical expertise to protect themselves.  Global regulation is never an easy answer but it is the solution. The vast majority of the internet is run by private companies, who have proven that self-regulation does not work. The only solution for these companies is to put people and purpose before profit and help us to tackle the tsunami of crime on the internet.