An Edmonton man has been charged with child pornography offences after an investigation by police in Europe shut down one of the largest pedophile networks in the world.
The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams said a 36-year-old had been using “Kidflix,” considered to be one of the world’s largest platforms for sharing child pornography.
ALERT said in January, a tip came from the National Child Exploitation Crime Centre, Europol —the EU’s law enforcement agency — and the Bavarian State Criminal Police in Germany.
Investigators searched a home in southeast Edmonton last month and seized various electronic devices, including a desktop computer and a cellphone, and arrested the man.
He has since been charged with possessing, accessing and distributing child porn.
“While many people believe they can hide in these corners of the dark web, the online world is not anonymous,” said said Det. Erik Bjarnason with ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation unit.
“Law enforcement continues to adapt to the ever-changing landscape of online criminal behaviour. Successes like this are fueled by dedicated investigators working with partners around the world to protect the children that have been victimized in the production of this material.”
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The accused, who police did not name, has been released with conditions and is to appear in court on April 14.
More than 35 countries have participated in Operation Stream, which has led to nearly 1,400 suspects being identified.
Europol said 79 suspects had been arrested for sharing and distributing child sexual abuse material on Kidflix. Some of those arrested are suspected of having abused children themselves, it said.
Europol said a total of around 91,000 unique videos had been uploaded and shared on the hugely profitable platform, which was created in 2021 and attracted 1.8 million users worldwide in the past three years.
“Unlike other known platforms of this kind, Kidflix not only enabled users to download child sexual abuse material but also to stream video files. Users made payments using cryptocurrencies, which were subsequently converted into tokens,” Europol said.
Users could earn tokens by uploading material, verifying titles and descriptions and assigning categories to videos, it added.
ALERT is a Alberta government policing organization staffed with members from law enforcement agencies across Alberta, that work together to investigate and tackle serious and organized crime.
Anyone with information on this investigation or any child exploitation situation is asked to contact their local police, or to report their concern anonymously to Crime Stoppers (1-800-222-TIPS).
— with files from Reuters and The Canadian Press