Crime Vast pedophile network shut down in Europol’s largest CSAM operation - 79 arrested after Europol shuts down massive child porn platform.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/04/vast-pedophile-network-shut-down-in-europols-largest-csam-operation/

https://archive.ph/xiSwL

Ashley Belanger – Apr 2, 2025

Europol has shut down one of the largest dark web pedophile networks in the world, prompting dozens of arrests worldwide and threatening that more are to follow.

Launched in 2021, KidFlix allowed users to join for free to preview low-quality videos depicting child sex abuse materials (CSAM). To see higher-resolution videos, users had to earn credits by sending cryptocurrency payments, uploading CSAM, or "verifying video titles and descriptions and assigning categories to videos."

Europol seized the servers and found a total of 91,000 unique videos depicting child abuse, "many of which were previously unknown to law enforcement," the agency said in a press release.

KidFlix going dark was the result of the biggest child sexual exploitation operation in Europol's history, the agency said. Operation Stream, as it was dubbed, was supported by law enforcement in more than 35 countries, including the United States.

Nearly 1,400 suspected consumers of CSAM have been identified among 1.8 million global KidFlix users, and 79 have been arrested so far. According to Europol, 39 child victims were protected as a result of the sting, and more than 3,000 devices were seized.

Police identified suspects through payment data after seizing the server. Despite cryptocurrencies offering a veneer of anonymity, cops were apparently able to use sophisticated methods to trace transactions to bank details. And in some cases cops defeated user attempts to hide their identities—such as a man who made payments using his mother's name in Spain, a local news outlet, Todo Alicante, reported. It likely helped that most suspects were already known offenders, Europol noted.

"The online world is not anonymous," Europol warned. "Most of the suspects identified in Operation Stream were matched against records in Europol’s databases, proving that most offenders engaged in child sexual exploitation are repeat offenders and are not unknown to law enforcement authorities."

Arrests spanned the globe, including 16 in Spain, where one computer scientist was found with an "abundant" amount of CSAM and payment receipts, Todo Alicante reported. Police also arrested a "serial" child abuser in the US, CBS News reported.

"Some of those arrested not only uploaded and watched videos but also abused children," Europol said, while confirming that "the investigation is ongoing," making it appear likely that more arrests could follow.

More arrests could prevent more abuse. In Germany, cops conducted raids in nearly 100 locations. Guido Limmer, the deputy head of the Bavarian Criminal Police, told CBS News that a 36-year-old German man was among those arrested. He not only allegedly searched for CSAM on KidFlix but "offered his young son for games," Limmer said.

Other users potentially uploaded fake child sex images generated by artificial intelligence, as police found AI CSAM on one suspect's devices, Todo Alicante reported. Law enforcement globally has warned that a flood of AI CSAM is making it harder to identify real victims, which could complicate Europol's task of protecting more kids through its ongoing investigation.''

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[🔪Cold Steel Brand Rep🔪]

I'd shoot a pedo with a gun. In real life, too.

 

[Maude Snew]

It likely helped that most suspects were already known offenders, Europol noted.

This alone ruins the entire thing, you knew them, you had them, you knew they were likely to reoffend, you let them the fuck out. Brilliant. They're just gonna be let back out again and do it all over.

 

[draggs]

Nearly 1,400 suspected consumers of CSAM have been identified among 1.8 million global KidFlix users, and 79 have been arrested so far.

Great that they shut the thing down but those numbers are both horrifying and pathetic. Only 1,400 identified out of 1.8 million? Only 79 arrests so far? jfc

 

[Staticness]

There are 8 billion people in the world, I am pretty sure the amount of sicko kiddy diddlers numbers in the low hundreds of millions.

So what you’re saying is that at the bare minimum 1 in 70 people is a nonce.

Is this before or after you have added up the entire Muslim population in places like Pakistan, practitioners of ritualized child abuse, and Latin America?

 

[PhoBingas]

Great that they shut the thing down but those numbers are both horrifying and pathetic. Only 1,400 identified out of 1.8 million? Only 79 arrests so far? jfc

Maybe that's all europol could get? Not much they can do if like 80% of the users are from shithole countries in south Asia and the middle east.

 

[cybertoaster]

Launched in 2021, KidFlix

They are not even pretending its not pedoshit anymore...

Jesus H. Christ that arrest number needs to go way up.

In some countries watching or even having cp isn't illegal, just distributing and selling it.

 

[Super Guido]

"Some of those arrested not only uploaded and watched videos but also abused children," Europol said, while confirming that "the investigation is ongoing," making it appear likely that more arrests could follow.

They are not even pretending its not pedoshit anymore...

In some countries watching or even having cp isn't illegal, just distributing and selling it.

Going by the above quote from the article, it seems like a good amount were both consumers and distributors. It baffles me that some people differentiate between consumers and creators, honestly. "Oh it's not as bad" even though 1. They're helping create demand and that results in more child abuse, and 2. How many of them create their own content at some point?

 

[Farsided]

And how bout' the uncontrolled importation of Muslim rapists since 2010? Any progress on stopping those sex crimes any time soon?

Best they can do is ask Netflix for a sanitised and government approved version that will kickstart the conversation around the issue. You'll have every white guy in town chanting chahada on rooftops and ending every phrase with bismillah

 

[Blewberry Nausea]

So what you’re saying is that at the bare minimum 1 in 70 people is a nonce.

Is this before or after you have added up the entire Muslim population in places like Pakistan, practitioners of ritualized child abuse, and Latin America?

I mean I didn’t do any actual number crunching or anything if that’s what you’re asking. But in this context I was specifically singling out criminals who target children specifically as part of a child focused perversion not religious or cultural degeneracy or immoral pansexual frivolity.

 

[The Connected Nose]

According to Europol, 39 child victims were protected as a result of the sting,

Not trying to be a wet blanket here, but if there were 39 victims, doesn't that imply that they weren't protected? Because if they were, you know, they wouldn't have become victims.

"Most of the suspects identified in Operation Stream were matched against records in Europol’s databases, proving that most offenders engaged in child sexual exploitation are repeat offenders and are not unknown to law enforcement authorities."

This just proves my point. They knew who these guys were. They knew they'd done it before. They knew they'd do it again. Yet those 39 children were still victimized, and the authorities have the gall to say they were protected??

 

[Otterly]

So what you’re saying is that at the bare minimum 1 in 70 people is a nonce.

Far higher. The usually accepted rate is one in twenty men, there’s not the data for women.
The scale of the problem is staggering. I am glad there are people in the world with the stomach to investigate this because I know I sure as hell couldn’t manage it psychologically without breaking.
And if these are known offenders whey are they not all in a cell? You cannot rehabilitate these people, they do not stop. Ever. They need permanent removal from society. They want population reduction? There’s a few percent right there they can take out and make the world better.

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

Not trying to be a wet blanket here, but if there were 39 victims, doesn't that imply that they weren't protected? Because if they were, you know, they wouldn't have become victims.



This just proves my point. They knew who these guys were. They knew they'd done it before. They knew they'd do it again. Yet those 39 children were still victimized, and the authorities have the gall to say they were protected??

This is Europe, their idea of protecting anyone is inherently deficient. If someone told me that there was a verbal slip here, and protected referred to the Financiers of such operations being protected, I'd believe it without a second thought. Its all about protecting those in power, not the plebs.

 

[Dr. Butt]

So what you’re saying is that at the bare minimum 1 in 70 people is a nonce.

I've definitely met more than 1 in 70 people who got nonce'd, so his math checks out. For some reason once a town's population goes below 20,000 it's guaranteed to have an Uncle Touchy in every house.

How many of them create their own content at some point?

I think most pedo rings and video sites require you to do so to gain membership.

 

[Super-Chevy454]

No need to guess then Roman Polanski and Dan "get in the van" Schneider aren't on the list of these guys arrested.

 

[Overly Serious]

1.8 million user accounts (presumably), 79 arrests, potentially 1,400+ could happen

Unless there's clarification elsewhere, the article says 1.8 million "users" without explanation of how they calculate it. It could mean accounts but for all we know it could be an estimate based on... IP addresses, browser fingerprints, number of connections or who knows what.

If it is that many, though, aside from it being horrifying in itself you wonder how they make the decision of when to stop monitoring and reel them in. It's got to be a horrendous decision. Think about it: 'We've identified 50 child pornographers but the numbers still going up. Take them off the street now or wait to get more [...] It's up to 500, stop them now or wait to catch more...?" You don't want to wait but you don't want to miss ones. I wonder what was the tipping point where they decided to act.

Going by the above quote from the article, it seems like a good amount were both consumers and distributors. It baffles me that some people differentiate between consumers and creators, honestly. "Oh it's not as bad" even though 1. They're helping create demand and that results in more child abuse, and 2. How many of them create their own content at some point?

I mean, logically I would probably say that creators are worse than consumers. But given I'd support the death penalty for the consumers there's not really anywhere up to go from there.

The usually accepted rate is one in twenty men, there’s not the data for women.

That's... a lot. Is that supposed to be child molesters? People who look at CSAM? People who feel an attraction but don't act? Are you talking prepubescents which is actual pedophilia? It sounds high.

I hope they are willing to release more information about this as they continue to make arrests. I would very much like to know where these people are - country, region and any other demographic information they are willing to release.

 

[Otterly]

That's... a lot. Is that supposed to be child molesters? People who look at CSAM? People who feel an attraction but don't act? Are you talking prepubescents which is actual pedophilia? It sounds high

It’s what the dsm says.

I’ve seen 5% of general population as an estimate with higher in some demographics... let me find a reference...

Edited to add: DSMV p698 and this book based on Seto’s research
[ 4] Pedophilia And Sexual Offending Against Children: Theory, Assessment And Intervention, Seto, M. (2008), ISBN: 1-4338-0114-0, p. 6
[ 5] Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, p. 698 “Prevalence”

Paraphilias also cluster.

I know it’s been discussed on here and someone broke out the rates in various cultures. But they weren’t using ‘once found a picture of a seventeen year old attractive’ as a metric.

 

[deleuzeon]

91,000 unique videos depicting child abuse

That is mind boggling. How do these sites always have like a billion terabytes of content? I sometimes wonder if I was the only person not abused as a child on video.

 

[KiwiFuzz2]

That's... a lot. Is that supposed to be child molesters? People who look at CSAM? People who feel an attraction but don't act? Are you talking prepubescents which is actual pedophilia? It sounds high.

I had the same questions.

I know one of the ways that they catalogue pedos is "opportunistic" vs. "preferential" or something along those lines. When it comes to porn and fantasy, there's also a line between "questionably tasteful" and "gulag."

"You know what sounds fun right now? A cheeky wank while imagining myself at the bottom of a pile of high school cheerleaders."

vs.

"You know what sounds fun right now? A cheeky wank while watching a video of a ten-year-old boy taking it in the ass."

Consumers of CSAM should get the rope because they're obviously on the "preferential" side and they're obviously on the "willing to break the law to feed the coom" side.

 

[Overly Serious]

It’s what the dsm says.

I know it’s been discussed on here and someone broke out the rates in various cultures. But they weren’t using ‘once found a picture of a seventeen year old attractive’ as a metric.

With all due respect I'd feel I wanted to look at their actual research rather than taking their word for it. Research into sexual behavior has an ignoble history and we're still paying for Kinsey's horrendous attempts to cast the extreme and unhealthy as normal. And wasn't transexualism recently removed from the DSM?

I'm not saying you're wrong but I would want to be more sure before factoring it into my thinking. There's also what @KiwiFuzz2 raised about what counts, albeit rather disturbingly put and not how I would term it. I know you addressed that in your comment but it's an example of the sort of things I would want to check their actual methodology on. One in twenty men being attracted to a fifteen year old, I could reluctantly believe that. But actual pedophilia being that prevalent. I'm thinking through all the friends I've had (more than 20, thanks!) and trying to imagine one in every twenty of them being into that. I can't - though I would hope, no I know, there'd be a strong filtering selection-bias there. I'd very much want to know what populations they surveyed for that if I were to base anything on those stats.

 

[Otterly]

I'd very much want to know what populations they surveyed for that if I were to base anything on those stats.

It is a horrible statistic. I am fairly sure that the Seto definition is pre pubescent children. I know we’ve discussed it here because I remember being horrified as well. There was an interview with the head of CEOPs in the uk a while back which I wish I’d saved but he said something like they had evidence for 800k users in the uk.
I’m chucking out numbers without a source which is very much not good but I am sure I remember that paper talking about cultures ranging from 3% to 30%. It is horrific in scale
I’m going to go and look for the place we talked about it.