International child abuse site used by 400,000 busted by police

3 May 2021, 10:37 | Updated: 3 May 2021, 16:27

An international task force say they have busted one of the world's largest dark web child abuse sites, used by more than 400,000 registered users, with four arrests made so far.

The platform - known as Boystown - focused on the sexual abuse of children, with images and video seized to help identify and rescue potential victims, EU law enforcement agency Europol said.

Paedophiles used the site to exchange and watch pornography of children and toddlers, most of them boys, from all over the world.

Prosecutors say they found "images of most severe sexual abuse of toddlers" among the photos and video material.

The investigation was led by German police and included investigators from Europol, America, Canada, Australia, Sweden and the Netherlands.

Several other chat sites used by child sex offenders were also seized, as Europol warned "online child offender communities on the dark web exhibit considerable resilience in response to law enforcement actions targeting them".

Worryingly, they said child sex offenders have been seen "resurrecting old communities, establishing new communities, and making strong efforts to organise and administer them" after police disrupted previous networks.

German prosecutors said in mid-April three men, one living in Paraguay, were arrested on suspicion of being administrators of the platform.

The three main suspects were a 40-year-old man from Paderborn, a 49-year-old man from Munich and a 58-year-old man from northern Germany who had been living in Paraguay for many years, the prosecutors' statement said.

They allegedly gave advice to members on how to evade law enforcement when using the platform for illegal child pornography.

A fourth suspect, a 64-year-old man from Hamburg, is accused of being one of the most active users of the platform, having allegedly uploaded more than 3,500 posts.

Police said "more arrests and rescues are to be expected globally as police worldwide examine the intelligence".