A large pedophile platform in the United States has shut down following an international investigation. Images of child sexual abuse are often paid for using crypto.
"Kidflix" resembled a streaming service—and according to Europol, 1.8 million users worldwide had logged on to the site between April 2022 and March of this year.
Detectives have found 1,275 individuals that either bought child sexual abuse materials using digital assets or gained credits for uploading their material.
79 suspected abusers and over 3,000 electronic items have so far been confiscated. 39 children are now protected.
Europol says this was the largest child sexual exploitation operation in its history—and Kidflix was more sophisticated than other pedophile platforms taken down in the past.
The site had more than 91,000 video clips, which totalled 6,288 hours. On average, 3.5 videos are uploaded per hour. The majority of these videos were unknown to the law enforcement.
The videos were also offered in medium, high and low quality. Pedophiles paid a premium to get the larger files.
Investigators in Bavaria, Germany led a global operation that involved investigators from more than 35 different countries to close the dark internet site.
Europol executive director Catherine De Bolle warned there are "real victims" behind these crimes, adding: "The digital dimension has driven a rapid evolution in online child sexual exploitation, offering offenders a borderless platform to contact and groom victims, as well as to create, store, and exchange child sexual abuse material. Some attempt to frame this as merely a technical or cyber issue—but it is not."
In a statement, the U.K. National Crime Agency confirmed that 63 British users of Kidflix had been identified so far—and of those, 30 have been arrested.
"Providing this global to local response is paramount in our role to protect children from child sexual abuse and criminals who seek out this content," NCA senior manager Neil Keeping said.
Through blockchain analytics, detectives can track crypto assets and bring criminals into justice.
Stacy Elliott edited this article.
