Australians snared in global child porn bust

More than 300 people arrested in an operation targeting the dark web’s largest child porn site.

A screen shot of the seized darkweb 'Welcome To Video' website. Picture: AFP

Australians are among more than 300 people arrested worldwide in an international operation to bring down the largest child pornography website on the darknet.

US and UK agencies announced the busting of the Welcome To Video website, described as “the largest child sexual exploitation market by volume of content”, when announcing charges against its alleged South Korean founder.

They said another 337 users of the site, located in 38 countries — including Australia, the UK, the US, Germany, Spain and Saudi Arabia — had been arrested.

The US charges against the alleged operator of the website, 23-year-old Jong Woo Son, came after he was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in a South Korean prison for child pornography.

According to the UK’s National Crime Agency, the website contained more than 250,000 “horrific videos”, and more than a million downloads were made by users.

“The website monetised the sexual abuse of children and was one of the first to offer sickening videos for sale using the cryptocurrency bitcoin,” the NCA said in a statement.

The NCA said it uncovered the website while investigating a UK geophysicist who in 2017 admitted to 137 offences, including encouraging child rape and sharing images of a newborn baby being abused.

US assistant Attorney-General Brian Benczkowski said efforts to rescue child victims will continue.

“Darknet sites that profit from the sexual exploitation of children are among the most vile and reprehensible forms of criminal behaviour,” he said.

The US Justice Department said Welcome To Video was “among the first of its kind to monetise child exploitation videos using bitcoin”.

“Each user received a unique bitcoin address when the user created an account on the website,” it said in a statement. “An analysis of the server revealed that the website had more than one million bitcoin addresses, signifying that the website had capacity for at least one million users.”

At least 23 children have been rescued as a result of investigations into the site.

The investigations also involved South Korean National Police and Germany’s Federal Criminal Police.

More than 7300 Bitcoin transactions worth more than $US730,000 were processed.

The site allegedly rewarded its members with “points” in relation to the amount of illegal material they uploaded, authorities said.

Users could purchase videos using cryptocurrency and an annual membership was priced at 0.03 bitcoins (around $300).

The site’s landing page stated in red bold type: “Do not upload adult porn.”

The NCA said seven men have already been convicted in Britain since the first suspect was arrested in 2017.

One man “was jailed for 22 years for raping a five-year-old boy and appearing on Welcome To Video sexually abusing a three-year-old girl.”

At least five defendants in the US have faced criminal charges related to the site.

NCA director of investigations Nikki Holland said: “Dark web child sex offenders — some of whom are the very worst offenders — cannot hide from law enforcement.”

“The NCA is relentless in pursuing them and we have specialist capabilities, which we use for all UK law enforcement, to unmask them and help take down sites like Welcome To Video,” she said.

“I’m immensely proud of the role we played in catching some very depraved and dangerous global offenders and for beginning the work that eventually caught Jong Woo Son.”

— with wires