Darkish net looking. Credit score: Shutterstock, MAYA LAB
Regulation enforcement has shut down one of many world’s largest baby sexual exploitation platforms, often called Kidflix. Led by German and Dutch authorities, the crackdown spanned 36 international locations and resulted in 79 arrests and practically 1,400 suspects recognized, based on supporting organisation, Europol.
1.8 million customers of ‘Kidflix’: The disturbing catalogue of kid abuse
In accordance with Europol, Kidflix operated as a significant darkish net platform ‘providing offenders a borderless platform to contact and groom victims, in addition to to create, retailer, and change baby sexual abuse materials.’ Created in 2021, the location reportedly attracted over 1.8 million customers globally by March 2025.
On March 11, German and Dutch police seized the central server, which on the time held 72,000 movies, as famous by Reuters). In whole, 91,000 distinctive movies have been uploaded and shared on the platform — a lot of them beforehand unseen by investigators, based on experiences.
‘In contrast to different recognized platforms of this sort, Kidflix not solely enabled customers to obtain baby sexual abuse materials but in addition to stream video recordsdata,’ Europol confirmed. Customers accessed materials by way of cryptocurrency-based tokens, earned by ‘importing CSAM, verifying video titles and descriptions and assigning classes.’
‘Operation Stream’: The biggest operation in Europol’s historical past
Described by Europol as ‘the biggest operation ever dealt with by its specialists in preventing baby sexual exploitation,’ Operation Stream ran from 2022 till March 2025.
One chilling case reported by Metro concerned a 36-year-old man who had ‘provided his younger son for video games’, cited by Metro. German authorities intervened 96 instances to safeguard kids and efficiently stopped abuse in 12 ongoing instances.
Actual victims of Kidflix
Catherine De Bolle, Europol’s Government Director, burdened the real-world injury of on-line exploitation:
“Some try to border this as merely a technical or cyber challenge – however it isn’t. There are actual victims behind these crimes, and people victims are kids.”
Magnus Brunner, EU Commissioner for Inner Affairs, added:
“The dismantling of this felony community demonstrates the added worth that EU companies like Europol present.”
As Metro famous, suspects ranged in age from late teenagers to folks of their seventies, with the typical age round 31. Many had lengthy histories on the darkish net. Most have been additionally repeat offenders.
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