International law enforcement authorities announced 337 arrests on Wednesday following a worldwide operation over a South Korea based dark web that shared and sold thousands of videos of child sexual abuse for digital cash.
Authorities from the United States, Britain, South Korea and other countries said they had rescued at least 23 minor victims of sexual exploitation. Australians are among more than 300 people arrested in a global dark web child pornography probe.
The website named Welcome To Video relied on the bitcoin cryptocurrency to sell access to 250,000 videos depicting child sexual abuse, authorities said, including footage of extreme abuse of young children. Its upload page specifically stated, “Do not upload adult porn”.
Welcome To Video is one of the first websites to monetise child sexual abuse using bitcoin, which allows users to hide their identities during financial transactions.
“Darknet sites that profit from the sexual exploitation of children are among the most vile and reprehensible forms of criminal behaviour,” US assistant attorney general, Brian Benczkowski, said.
“These are the bottom feeders of the criminal world,” said Don Fort, chief of criminal investigation at the US internal revenue service (IRS), which initiated the investigation.
>Juthy Saha
Shutdown of World’s Largest Child Sexual Abuse Website and Hundreds Arrested
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