Painting a grim picture of the dark web Mistri explains that this secret space allows users to remain anonymous, making it easier for criminals to operate undetected. Established in 2021, the platform had more than 1.8 million users over the last five years, before it was dismantled on March 11, 2025. Launched in 2021 by a “cybercriminal who made a huge profit from it,” the platform quickly became one of the most popular hubs for paedophiles, according to Europol. Suspects were identified after crime agencies traced the site’s cryptocurrency transactions back to them. US officials unsealed nine indictments against the site’s owner Jong Woo Son, 23, from South Korea – where he is currently in prison. But on Wednesday, officials revealed that 337 suspected users had been arrested across 38 countries.
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Some of those arrested not only uploaded and watched videos – but also abused children themselves. It hosted approximately 91,000 unique videos, amounting to nearly 6,288 hours of explicit content—all shared on a highly profitable network. The site, named Welcome to Video, was run from South Korea and had nearly eight terabytes of content involving child abuse – enough to store hundreds or even thousands of hours of video footage. He is already serving an 18-month sentence in South Korea on convictions related to child pornography. Louis Donald Mendonsa, 62, of Sacramento, pleaded guilty in April to seven counts of distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography, according to the U.S.
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“Finding these perpetrators on the normal web is hard, but it’s even harder on the dark web. They use the latest technology to keep evading authorities. With the likes of IA, it is becoming a double-aged sword.” The ‘bulk’ of the suspects identified by investigators were between 20 and 40 years old, with the average age around 31, senior prosecutor Thomas Goger said at the press conference. As part of the operation, German authorities intervened on 96 occasions to safeguard children.
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Her decision followed an hour-long discussion over the website’s contents, and whether McIntosh’s role warranted a longer or shorter sentence than that of his codefendants, three other men identified as the site’s leaders. Police have praised the work of their electronic crime investigations unit, which led to the arrests of Wilken and a number of other suspects. The federal complaint says undercover agents traced payments of bitcoin to the darknet site. South Korean authorities arrested Son and seized his server in 2018, shutting down an operation active since at least June 2015.
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The Operation Grayskull investigation launched in 2020, when law enforcement agents noticed a spike in traffic to a dark web site suspected of hosting child abuse material. The dark web child abuse sites eventually attracted more than 120,000 members, millions of files and at least 100,000 visits in a single day, according to an FBI official who spoke with CBS News. The authorities said the platform was “one of the world’s biggest child pornography darknet platforms” and had been active at least since 2019.
Most of the images and videos showed children in a home setting and most often in a child’s bedroom. In the backgrounds, analysts saw soft toys, games, books and bedding featuring cartoon characters. In some images the location could not be determined as the image was very close up. Most of the time these children are initially clothed and much of what we see is a quick display of genitals.
- He “assisted with managing and maintaining” four separate websites on the dark web between at least December of 2021 and November of 2022, when he was arrested, the DOJ said in a written statement.
- The charity reported in October 2023 that a total of 20,254 AI generated imaged were uploaded in a month to one dark web forum.
- An analysis of the 256 Australians identified paints a typical profile of someone in the 50s or 60s, most (55 per cent) with no previous criminal history.
- These perpetrators use psychological manipulation to weaken their victims, gradually pulling them from one stage to the next.
- These resources offer some more guidance about online safety for children and youth.
The takedown of Kidflix was the result of a massive international investigation, spearheaded by German law enforcement with support from Europol. The Justice Department says the arrests are connected to a 10-month investigation between federal law enforcement officials in the U.S. and Europol in Europe. Frankfurt prosecutors said in a statement together with the Federal Criminal Police Office that in mid-April three German suspects, said to be the administrators of the “Boystown” platform, were arrested along with a German user. It follows the removal of the site Kidflix, described by the EU’s crime agency Europol as “one of the largest paedophile platforms in the world.” The case was prosecuted under “Project Safe Childhood,” a nationwide effort launched by the DOJ in 2006 to combat child exploitation and abuse. Mendonsa committed his crimes from a local coffee shop, where he would connect to the internet, prosecutors said.
- They may face three to ten years in prison and fines ranging from 60,000 to 200,000 baht.
- The good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule means evidence derived from the warrant is admissible.
- According to the snapshot study, there has been 17 percent increase in online AI-altered CSAM since the fall of 2023, as well as a startling increase in materials showing extreme and explicit sex acts.
- Welcome To Video is one of the first websites to monetise child pornography using bitcoin, which allows users to hide their identities during financial transactions.
- Several other people charged in the case have already been convicted and are serving prison sentences of up to 15 years, according to the US Justice Department.
We will always be behind offenders when it comes to technology, and law enforcement agencies around the world will soon be overwhelmed. They need laws designed to help them identify and prosecute those seeking to exploit children and young people online. Horrifyingly, forum members referred to those creating the AI-imagery as “artists”.
Raid comes months after Jared Foundation’s director was arrested on child porn charges. It said a total of almost 1,400 suspects had been identified, while 39 children were protected through the operation. Nearly 1,400 suspected consumers of CSAM have been identified among 1.8 million global KidFlix users, and 79 have been arrested so far.
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Instead, he apologized to Cannon, to the children he’d victimized, and to his family, none of whom attended the hearing. The prosecutor declined to repeat McIntosh’s username Thursday but said it referred to “a scary vehicle parents feared their children being abducted by.” “It isn’t pretty, it isn’t fun, and it isn’t right,” he said, but it doesn’t require the abuse of actual children. Serafini called the site “horrific” and blamed McIntosh’s involvement on a lifelong sexual addiction. Given a “psychiatric diagnosis as a pedophile” in the 1990s, McIntosh said he suffered with the affliction for 50 years and had fought it with varying degrees of success.
Before authorities took it down on March 11, 2025, Kidflix was expanding at an alarming rate. Users could also earn tokens by uploading material, verifying titles and descriptions and assigning categories to videos, it added. The site was “one of the first to offer sickening videos for sale using the cryptocurrency bitcoin,” the UK’s National Crime Agency said. He has covered Washington for two decades, earning 20 Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards.
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Users gained access to videos using tokens bought using cryptocurrency or earned through tasks, such as categorising videos or uploading abusive material. Authorities remain committed to following leads, bringing more offenders to justice, and dismantling similar networks worldwide. Senior prosecutor Thomas Goger revealed that most of the identified suspects were between 20 and 40 years old, with an average age of 31. It was shut down last year after a UK investigation into a child sex offender uncovered its existence. The site had more than 200,000 videos which had collectively been downloaded more than a million times.
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Nonetheless, this report evidences a growing problem that boasts several key differences from previous technologies. Chief among those differences is the potential for offline generation of images at scale – with the clear potential to overwhelm those working to fight online child sexual abuse and divert significant resources from real CSAM towards AI CSAM. This new July 2024 updated report evaluates what has changed since October 2023 with AI child sexual abuse imagery and the technology being abused to create it. It should be considered an update to the initial report and be reviewed alongside it.
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“Even now, the IWF is starting to see more of this type of material being shared and sold on commercial child sexual abuse websites on the internet.” The dark web streaming platform provided access to thousands of videos depicting extreme child sexual abuse—including crimes against very young children. According to the Internet Watch Foundation, which tracks down and removes abuse from the internet, there has been an 830% rise in online child sexual abuse imagery since 2014. Kidflix was a dark web streaming platform that provided access to thousands of videos depicting extreme child sexual abuse—including crimes against very young children. If that view gains traction, Fourth Amendment challenges about searches and seizures by the government could change how the center operates and how tech companies find and remove illegal imagery on their platforms. The technology it uses for receiving and reviewing reports of the material was created in 1998, nearly a decade before the first iPhone was released.
Below is a chart showing the breakdown of the sexual activity seen in this 3–6-year-old ‘self-generated’ material. IntelliGrade, our bespoke grading software, allows us to add additional contextual metadata as we grade and hash the material. These extra tags describe the sexual activity seen and enable our assessments to be compatible with multiple legal jurisdictions around the world. The video introduces Megan Hinton from the Marie Collins Foundation, who speaks about the importance of survivor-led advocacy and the impact of technology-assisted abuse. Her insights highlight the need for continued support and action to protect victims and prevent further harm.
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“Dark net sites that profit from the sexual exploitation of children are among the most vile and reprehensible forms of criminal behaviour,” said US Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski. He is in federal custody and will be transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility. Along with the dark web, mainstream social media platforms have become a hunting grounds for child predators. Led by German forces, Operation Stream has been branded as ‘one of the biggest blows against child pornography in recent years, if not ever’, the deputy head of the Bavarian criminal police, Guido Limmer, told a press conference.
JOHANNESBURG – A massive amount of child sexual abuse material is traded on the dark web, a hidden part of the internet that cannot be accessed through regular browsers. Unlike other websites hosting images of child sex abuse, ‘Kidflix’ allowed users to stream videos as well as download files. An international investigation to uncover users of a dark web child pornography website has led to 337 arrests, authorities have said. And the offenders often request how they want the child to be sexually abused as the crimes are happening, a new report says. Most tech companies have been quick to respond to urgent inquiries, but responses in other cases vary significantly. In interviews, law enforcement officials pointed to Tumblr, a blogging and social networking site with 470 million users, as one of the most problematic companies.
According to Europol, 39 child victims were protected as a result of the sting, and more than 3,000 devices were seized. At some point on this timeline, realistic full-motion video content will become commonplace. The first examples of short AI CSAM videos have already been seen – these are only going to get more realistic and more widespread.
