Authorities from the United States, South Korea, Britain and others have recently cracked down on one of the dark web’s most notorious paedophile site making 337 arrests and rescuing 23 child victims.
The website, which has reportedly shared 1 million videos of children who have been sexually exploited in return for payments in Bitcoin across several countries including over 24 states in the United States, the U.K, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E amassing 420 bitcoin virtual currency, estimated at $370,000 with over 7300 transactions
The site encourages users to upload videos of sexually molesting underage children and also how to get away with the crime by teaching them covert ways to upload the videos on the dark web and also encouraging them to document the abuse.
The site, owned by a 23-year-old Son Jong Woo, who hails and has now been jailed in South Korea, titled ‘Welcome to Video’ had over 250,000 videos of 45% of formerly unknown children whose whereabouts have been unidentified. The site users, some 337 of which have been arrested while two others killed themselves earned points on the site by uploading the gruesome videos and also referring others to the site. They could also earn VIP status on the site for $353 in Bitcoin as at March 2018 for unlimited downloads.
The owner of the site was indicted in the States on charges bordering on child pornography and money laundering. The physical location of the Darknet Server was discovered by the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and who also revealed the users, who hiding behind Bitcoin, made transactions to the site.
Don Fort of the US Internal Revenue Service said the following concerning the supposed anonymity of the Dark Web at a Press Conference in Washington.
“You went on the dark web, thinking that your actions were anonymous, but they weren’t, and we found you, Our agents have once again proved that there’s nowhere that you can hide.”
Don Fort
