Why Men Rape: An Indian Undercover Investigation

by Tara Kaushal

While researching this project, I sought child rape forums on the dark web, and found them more easily than I would’ve preferred. Of course, they’re not called ‘child rape forums’, though that’s what they are—they have names like ‘Child Lovers’, ‘Man-Girl Sex’ and ‘Little Lolitas’. I couldn’t see the revolting pictures or videos—the first and only time I tried, I had a visceral reaction and vomited right where I sat. That was more than even I had signed up for. What I did was spend a few hours—the most I could take—watching the chat. At any given time in any given chat room, there were a few active participants (those sharing links to child rape pornography). A vast majority of those ‘live’ were passive (consuming and cumming to the pornography being shared by the active users, I presume). What I noticed about the conversation was how many people talked about their depraved fantasies—wanting to fuck their little sisters, daughters, sons and students—that they couldn’t get themselves to act out. And how many people encouraged them to go ahead and just do it. “You’re not a freak, it’s normal,” said one user. “We’re all doing it, everybody’s doing it,” wrote another.