The Internet plays a bit part in this story, but an important one.

Last week Germans received the news that a man killed and ate another man with the victim's consent. Police controls may have been able to stop the gruesome events, but the authorities stepped in far too late.

Armin M. and Bernd B. met through an Internet chat room for bizarre sex. Under the pseudonym “Franky,” Armin used the site to find a cohort: “Hi, are you between 18 and 30 years old and have a normal build, and would you like to be slaughtered? Then come to me and I’ll do it.” Bernd responded.

In March 2001 he disappeared after taking a day off work as a computer chip developer in Berlin to attend to "personal matters." He apparently went to meet his chat partner, Armin.

Last week police arrested Armin and charged him with murder. He subsequently confessed to castrating, killing and eating Bernd.

The police reportedly recovered a video, a human skeleton and frozen human flesh from Armin’s house in the town of Rotenburg. The video allegedly shows not only that Bernd agreed to Armin cutting off his penis -- which the two men ate -- and killing him, but also the acts themselves.

Limited Surveillance

Were it not for the Internet, the two men may never have met.

Months after Bernd’s disappearance, the police started to investigate Armin M. The German Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) received a tip from an Internet user who came across one of Armin's ads looking for men to "slaughter."

Though that chance lead may have led police to Armin's covert activities, in reality police agencies can do little to prevent criminal activities in the Internet.

In late 1998 the BKA set up a department devoted to fighting crimes -- mainly child pornography -- in the Net. Now 19 officers patrol cyberspace night and day. When they come across signs of criminal activity, they pass them on to local authorities, who open investigations.

But, as Birgit Heib, a spokesperson for the BKA admits, the state is unable to hinder online dealings like the advertisement that Bernd responded to. Freedom of expression -- enshrined in the German Constitution -- prevents police authorities from banning web sites or chat rooms.

Easy, anonymous access

On the World Wide Web, sites like the one where Armin M. and Bernd B. met are easy to find for anyone who cares to look. And, while software exists to control chat rooms and sites on the Web, there are other ways to go undetected, explains Burkhard Schröder, a journalist and Internet expert. On a sort of parallel plane outside of the Web, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) allows users to communicate invisibly and in total anonymity.

Just like the Web, which is actually a protocol called http, IRC is a protocol. It allows an unlimited number of people to chat with each other in real time. The system was created in Finland in 1988 by Jarkko Oikarinen, a computer administer at a Finnish University. Oikarinen aimed to develop a system to improve the on-campus bulletin board. IRC first gained popularity during the 1991 Gulf War, when events were transmitted live on the system. During the 1991 Russian coup and the 1994 Californian earthquake, eyewitnesses reported on events as they unfolded.

Internet Relay Chat is made up of servers that are linked to each other in a tree-like fashion. A program (called a "client") connects users to servers or networks where they can chat publicly or privately with an unlimited number of people on different channels. The clients are available online for free or for a nominal fee. The different channels, often discussion topics, are run by channel operators, who choose who joins, who must leave and who may speak. Anyone can be a channel operator. Channels disappear when the last person leaves.

One of the biggest nets and the first one, EFnet, has 105,000 users, 370 operators, 41,000 channels and 50 servers. IRC continues to be developed by volunteers all over the world.

IRC users communicate with others by sending text messages through the system.

Even when they are public, IRC channels are difficult to monitor, and the users cannot always be tracked. They use nicknames and are not required to reveal personal information at anytime. Even Internet service providers are unable to detect IRC activity.

Like the World Wide Web, IRC is accessible throughout the world. The system is administered by IRC operators (called IRCops), who neither take part in exchanges nor police them. In fact, there is no way to police IRC so far. The only chance authorities have to prevent crimes planned through IRC is to go undercover.

Dangers of IRC

While clandestine activities cannot be detected, IRC harbors other dangers. Users have to be especially careful to avoid viruses and hackers. The four biggest IRC nets are regularly subjected to attacks that hinder or block use, so that increasingly users are getting access through smaller nets.

The IRC help archive warns newcomers to learn as much as they can about the system to avoid risks before actually joining a chat. Malicious users can hack into other people's computers or flood them with text or with certain requests that will make the server automatically disconnect them.

IRC FAQ sites also advise users not to reveal they are female because they are likely to be subjected to harassment.

For those of us not well-versed in the intricacies of the Net, IRC is a new venue to explore. And for those who value keeping their actions secret, it's ideal.