BoyLover.net

BoyLover.net (other names: BLN, BLn, bl.net) was one of the world's largest online boylover communities, and was the largest online message board for boylovers. It was started in 2002, and shut down by an FBI raid in 2009.

History

BLN was started and run by LostBoy for its lifespan, starting on May 1, 2002, and ending November 25, 2009. Within a few months of its initial creation, the site underwent a major redesign and restructure after it "became a battle zone for interpersonal flaming, insult, and damage." The redesign gave the board a friendlier feel and allowed it to better progress into a supportive environment. Language-specifics forums, as well as a room for under 18s, were features of the site.

On July 27, 2003, BLN established BoyLoverLinks.net as "a worldwide directory for the internet boylove community."

Server transfer, tech issues, and FBI seizure

Somewhere in 2004, the BLN server was transferred from one location to another resulting in minor downtime. During this time an IP address was provided for users to visit the board with.

On November 18, 2004, one of the BLN hard drives powering the site failed resulting in further unexpected downtime. The IP address access was pulled and the site, as well as BoyLoverLinks.net, were both offline. It was stressed that no data was lost due to the hard drive failure. Emails were also unable to be sent to either BLN or BoyLoverLinks, and LostBoy provided a gmail address.

Between November 18 and December 2, 2004, the FBI seized the server hosting BoyLover.net and BoyLoverLinks.net as part of an investigation into the websites regarding their legality. BLN Relations Admin Joecool4218 had informed users via BoyChat that BLN had been taken offline due to a pending FBI investigation in response to a comment by another BoyChat poster. At the time of the seizure, the site had 15,000 registered users.

BLN was back online by mid January 2005 with no compromised user data. Two weeks of data was lost due to the sudden nature of the downtime.

Operations Rescue, Naga, and Caledon

Starting in 2007, The UK-based Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) started investigating BoyLover.net, and later that year infiltrated the website, in an operation which would become Operation Rescue in 2009 when it joined forces with Europol, Australia, US authorities, and various other countries. In 2008, the Australian Federal Police's new unit Child Protection Operations (CPO) began to take note of BoyLover.net after an investigation into two child sex tourists started to involve the website. Intelligence gathering on BoyLover.net quickly became a secondary focus, and soon Operation Caledon shifted focus. Initially, Operation Caledon was named Action Hercules. Later in 2008 the AFP began to suggest a cooperative effort in investigating BoyLover.net.

In February 2008, CEOP handed Thai authorities information on a potential child sex offences occuring in the country being committed by British citizens. This information was later used by Thai authorities in Operation Naga to arrest four men.

Somewhere in 2008 or 2009, British authorities were able to take over the account of BLN British administrator. This gave them almost complete access to the site, allowing them to see all the information members entered into their profiles (including birth date, occupation, location, and more).

In 2009, two senior BLN members were arrested by AFP, and three months later US authorities were informed that Joseph Gittings (later identified as Joecool4218) was an administrator to BLN.

On November 24, 2009, a raid was conducted by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on the home of Gittings, arresting him for child pornography possession and distribution, and also arrested his boyfriend on separate charges. A day later, November 25, Dale Hodges was raided and arrested at his home on further child pornography charges, and Amir Ish-Hurwitz (LostBoy) was raided in his Netherlands home while Dutch authorities elsewhere seized the server for BLN resulting in the site's permanent closure. At the time of being closed, the site had over 70,000 members. On the same day, Loren was raided and his site BoyZoom was closed to ensure members were safe. On December 1, BoyZoom permanently shut down in fear of being closed down.

The seizure and arrests were quick to spread amongst boylovers, with the first thread on BoyChat gaining many replies in the few days after being posted and numerous other threads appearing throughout the following few months. Through the next two years, details of the trials for Gittings and Hodges were sporadically posted by anonymous posters and occasionally on request.

Following the conviction of Hurwitz after his trial, Europol held a press conference and released details of Operation Rescue. In total, at the time of the conference, 184 people had been arrested and 670 members suspected of committing criminal offences, despite claims from an Australian newspaper alleging over 200 arrests. 121 memberes were British, and 31 were Australian. A total of 4202 intelligence reports had been created on members of the deceased site and distributed to 33 different countries worldwide.

Despite rumours that administration members may have used the BLN server to exchange child pornography, the Dutch Justice Ministry stated that the BLN server was clean.

Features

BLN was run through the Ultimate Bulletin Board software and had forums for a variety of languages including Spanish, Dutch, Russian, and Hungarian. There were also various forums for entertainment threads and pictures or videos in addition to literature forums and an area specifically for members under 18 years of age (where those over 16 were not permitted). In December 2005, the most popular forums were The Porch and The Entry, with The Poolside following in third. Of the foreign forums, Das Deutsche Zimmer and El Caurto Hispano were the two most popular with 91212 and 79998 posts respectively.

Site design heavily featured: large, illustrative photographs; strong use of bright colors; and a multitude of icons. Color scheme was occasionally transformed, in recognition of significant or tragic events, to a monochromatic theme.^{[Citation needed]}

Members were categorized according to their post count, with a member starting as "New Kid" and eventually becoming "Elder Brother" at 5000 posts. While this made it simple to tell oldtimers from newbies, it often led to members posting playfully in order to increase their post count, and hence their status.

Site management was highly organized, and a team of Buddies were responsible for welcoming and guiding new members of the community. Highly respected members were sometimes named Mentors. Only one member, Friend, had been named Mentor.^{[Citation needed]}

The site also featured a free online magazine called Modern Boylover Magazine which started in 2006. The latest issue of MBM was published in December 2015.

Security

BoyLover.net's rules and guidelines were intended to safeguard the site's legality according to United States law. A complex, three-tiered organization of nearly 100 volunteers served users of the site and enforced site policy.

According to site administrators, BoyLover.net's servers were seized by law enforcement authorities in 2011.^{[Citation needed]}

Site administrators have been criticized for taking a cavalier attitude toward security problems.^{[Citation needed]}

Some portals had warned against BoyLover.net on grounds that the site allowed off-site image links, making IP harvesting relatively simple. Due to this, visitors were advised to turn off images when loading BoyLover.net forums if they are worried about their surfing habits being analyzed by unknown and potentially hostile parties.

BoyLover.net's privacy policy was visually lengthy, and within that it was clearly stated that they collected IP addresses. Further, it was stated that they (BoyLover.net administration) would share personal information of members to comply with law enforcement or to protect the board.

Mission statement

The following was taken from BoyLover.net's home page:

BoyLover.net provides a safe, supportive, and legal environment where boylovers, boys, and others interested in boylove can share thoughts, opinions, feelings, and experiences. Its forums are online meeting places where questions, advice, and debate take place freely in an atmosphere of comfort and mutual respect, and where educational material and information about boylove can be shared.