German authorities announced on Wednesday that they have dismantled a major streaming platform showing sexual violence against minors, following a three-year investigation involving raids in 31 countries.
'KidFlix,' a platform created in 2021, fell to the largest crackdown on child sexual abuse since Europol’s establishment in 1999, Guido Limmer, deputy director of Bavarian criminal police, said at a press conference in Munich.
Nearly 1,400 suspects have been identified. Since April 2022, 1.8 million people worldwide accessed the platform on the darknet to view the videos.
“This involves terrible acts of sexual violence committed against children, very young children, and even babies, displayed in high-quality videos,” said Mr. Limmer.
After paying for their registration with cryptocurrencies, users had access to over 91,000 videos totalling 6,288 hours. On average, three and a half new videos were uploaded hourly on the now-disabled platform.
The investigation, which began in 2022, led to a large-scale police operation in March, supported by Europol. Authorities from 38 countries participated, predominantly in Europe, the USA, Canada, Colombia, Australia, and New Zealand.
Identifying child victims of violence was a key focus, with several being rescued in North Rhine-Westphalia (northwest Germany) and identified in Brandenburg (east Germany), Bavarian authorities said.
