CSAM platform Kidflix shut down by international operation

A multi-year operation against the child sexual abuse material (CSAM) platform Kidflix has led to dozens of arrests and the seizure of tens of thousands of illegal videos, Europol said Wednesday.

Some of the 79 people arrested “not only uploaded and watched videos but also abused children,” Europol said, reporting that 39 children had been protected because of the operation. 

“The investigation is ongoing,” the agency said, with 35 countries participating overall in what it labeled as the “largest child sexual exploitation operation in Europol’s history.” Users accessed Kidflix through the dark web and paid for access tokens in cryptocurrencies.

Germany’s State Criminal Police of Bavaria (Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt) and the Bavarian Central Office for the Prosecution of Cybercrime (ZCB) led the operation. Each published additional details about specific operations against individuals.

The 79 arrests were from a larger list of 1,393 suspects that have been identified so far, Europol said, representing only a fraction of the 1.8 million users who reportedly logged on to the platform between April 2022 and March of this year.

German and Dutch authorities seized servers holding about 72,000 videos on March 11, Europol said. Authorities estimate the platform hosted as many as 91,000 unique videos.

“On average, around 3.5 new videos were uploaded to the platform every hour, many of which were previously unknown to law enforcement,” Europol said.

Offenders could also earn tokens to view content by helping to label and categorize videos, the agency said.

“Some attempt to frame this as merely a technical or cyber issue – but it is not,” said Catherine De Bolle, Europol’s executive director. “There are real victims behind these crimes, and those victims are children.”