Major child sexual abuse platform dismantled – Europol

One of the world’s largest child sexual abuse platforms, with nearly two million users, has been dismantled in a major international operation, Europol has reported.

The ‘KidFlix’ streaming service, launched in 2021, hosted more than 91,000 videos. Around 1.8 million users worldwide logged on to the platform over a three-year period.

According to a press statement issued by Europol this week, more than 35 countries participated in the operation, which resulted in the network being shut down by German and Dutch authorities in March.

‘Operation Stream’ was the largest child sexual exploitation case ever handled by Europol and one of the biggest investigations supported by the agency in recent years, it said.

The investigation into the service, launched in 2022, has so far led to 79 arrests and the identification of nearly 1,400 suspects. Some of those detained were not only consumers of the material but also direct perpetrators of abuse, according to Europol.

Unlike similar platforms, Kidflix allowed users not only to download but also to stream child sexual abuse material.

Europol’s Executive Director Catherine de Bolle said the rise of digital technology had driven a rapid evolution in online child sexual exploitation.

“Some attempt to frame this as merely a technical or cyber issue – but it is not. There are real victims behind these crimes, and those victims are children,” she said.

The amount of online child sexual abuse material has surged in recent years, with 2024 marking the worst year on record, according to the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). The IWF has reported an 830% increase in abusive imagery since it began tracking such material in 2014.