The Federal Criminal Police Office and the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) have struck a blow against three international Darknet platforms that have been distributing child pornography.
As the authorities announced on Friday, more than a million users were registered worldwide on the platforms named "BoyVids 6.0", "Forbidden Love" and "Child Porn Market".
According to the investigators, this makes them one of the largest providers of images of sexualized violence against children on the dark web.
The photographs and videos were offered both for exchange and for sale.
Anna Sophia Lang
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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Catherine Iskandar
Responsible editor for the "Rhein-Main" department of the Sunday newspaper.
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As announced by the ZIT, which belongs to the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office and investigates nationwide Internet crimes with unclear local jurisdiction, three suspects were arrested in Germany.
Including the alleged main administrator of the three sides, a 21-year-old man from Saxony.
In addition, a 44-year-old man from Lower Saxony and a 45-year-old man from Schleswig-Holstein were arrested.
There is a strong suspicion of the gang distribution of child pornography against them.
Third major investigative success of Hessian investigators
The shutdown is the third major investigative success of ZIT and BKA.
In 2017 they shut down the “Elysium” platform with 111,000 and 2021 “Boystown” with 400,000 registered users.
In these cases, too, those responsible were arrested.
At the beginning of December, the Frankfurt Regional Court sentenced four men from Germany who ran, moderated or actively used "Boystown" to between twelve and seven years in prison, in some cases also for sexual abuse of children.
The court ordered preventive detention for two of the defendants.
According to the investigators, the alleged main administrator of the now switched-off platforms was also an active user on "Boystown".
When he noticed that the site had been closed, he set about founding a new one, said a ZIT spokesman.
This is how “BoyVids 6.0” was created, which has existed as a swap page since 2021 and has 410,000 registered users.
While only files from boys were distributed there, "Forbidden Love" functioned as an exchange platform for images of sexualized violence against girls.
It has existed since February 2022 and had 846,000 registered users at the time of its shutdown, according to investigators.
As a result, 120 video files of sexual violence against male and female children were last offered on the “Child Porn Market” page, which has been online since around October 2022.
According to the ZIT, the high number of registered users should be seen against the background "that the three platforms were internationally oriented and accesses came from all over the world".
International cooperation against child pornography
On November 29, after a year of investigations at the BKA in Wiesbaden and the ZIT in Frankfurt, the main suspect was arrested.
Although he acted anonymously in the Tor network, he was identified.
The other suspects from Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein were arrested on November 6th and December 13th.
An administrator of Forbidden Love was also arrested in Brazil.
His nationality is not known, said the ZIT spokesman, but he is not German.
Therefore he will not be extradited to Germany.
It is assumed that the Brazilian prosecutors pushed the process forward.
The ZIT is still investigating a second administrator and alleged founder of the site.
The ZIT child pornography experts and a department of the BKA worked together with the FBI, Australian authorities and the Brazilian police.
The suspects were identified primarily because activities continued to be monitored after Boystown was shut down.
Added to this were the tips from the foreign authorities, with whom one is in regular contact when suspicion arises, including in the case of other types of crime.
When asked what would happen to the images and videos from the three platforms, the ZIT spokesman said the data had not yet been deleted because the evidence had to be secured in order to be able to bring charges and conduct the subsequent court proceedings.
The users of the sites who noticed that the platform was being shut down took countermeasures in such cases: the administrator gave other responsible persons the opportunity to put a copy of the platform online, but this only allowed the surface to be seen.
The content cannot be accessed.
"Battle Against Windmills"
The accused have not yet made any statements about the allegations.
In the meantime, the ZIT had to hand over the proceedings to the local public prosecutor's office.
On the one hand, because the main suspect was an adolescent at the time of the crime and the public prosecutor's office at home is therefore responsible.
In addition, in contrast to the "Boystown" trial, where an accused German from Paraguay was extradited to Germany and arrested at Frankfurt Airport, there were no arrests in Hesse.
It will probably not be long before the indictments are brought, the trials will take place separately in Saxony, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein and not in a joint main hearing.
The investigators are already counting on the fact that there will also be new foundations of platforms in this case.
The ZIT spokesman said it was a "fight against windmills", which, however, would not be given up.