Hundreds arrested over child abuse website on dark web

Hundreds of people across the world were arrested after police knocked out a dark web child pornography site based in South Korea that sold gruesome videos for digital cash.

Officials from the US, Britain and South Korea described the network as one of the largest child pornography operations they had encountered.

Called Welcome to Video, the website used the Bitcoin cryptocurrency to sell access to 250,000 videos depicting abuse, including footage of extremely young children.

“Darknet sites that profit from the sexual exploitation of children are among the most vile and reprehensible forms of criminal behaviour,” the US assistant attorney general Brian Benczkowski said.

At least 23 children in the US, Britain and Spain who were being abused by users of the site have been rescued, the US Justice Department said. Many other victims have not yet been identified.

Welcome to Video’s operator, a South Korean named Jong Woo-son, and 337 users in 12 countries have been charged, authorities said.

Jong, who is serving an 18-month sentence in South

Korea, also faces federal charges in Washington. Several other people are serving jail sentences of up to 15 years.

Welcome to Video is thought to be one of the first websites to monetise child pornography using Bitcoin, which allows users to hide their identities during transactions.

Users were able to redeem the digital currency for points they could spend on downloads or unlimited streaming.

Points could be earned by sharing child pornography on a page that specifically stated: “Do not upload adult porn”.

The Justice Department said the site collected Bitcoin worth at least $370,000 (Dh1.36 million) before it was closed in March last year, and that the money was laundered through digital currency exchanges.

Christopher Parsons, a data law expert at the University of Toronto, said the case showed that police could track criminal activity that uses cryptocurrency transactions.

“A lot of people have this perception that Bitcoin is totally anonymous and it’s been the downfall of many people in many investigations,” he said.