Child porn streaming service KidFlix used by nearly two million paedophiles to watch boys and girls suffer horrific abuse is smashed by police

Police have dismantled a major child pornography platform with 1.8million users worldwide and over 91,000 videos of child sexual abuse material. 

Authorities in 38 different countries, including the UK, supported German police and Europol, the law enforcement agency of the European Union, in carrying out one of the biggest blows against child pornography in recent years, if not ever.

The website, KidFlix, was said to have hosted over 6,200 hours of horrific abuse on film.

Authorities were able to identify almost 1,400 individual users of the platform, which was hosted on the so-called darknet.

Police in March carried out searches at locations in 31 countries in the largest operation ever organised by Europol, according to deputy head of the Bavarian criminal police Guido Limmer.

This included raids at 96 different locations, targeting 103 individual suspects, according to Bavarian police. 

UK intelligence has identified 63 UK-based users of the platform, with 30 arrests made. 

A joint raid by German and Dutch forces also resulted in the seizure of a hard drive with around 72,000 videos of child sex abuse.

Police in March carried out searches at locations in 31 countries in the largest operation ever organised by Europol

Authorities were able to identify almost 1,400 individual users of the platform, which was hosted on the so-called darknet

Kidflix was created in 2021 by a cybercriminal who made a huge profit from the platform, according to Europol.

Unlike other known platforms of this kind, it allowed users to both download and stream video files, making payments using cryptocurrencies which were then converted into tokens. 

The investigation into the website started in 2022 and concluded with two weeks of raids from March 10 to 23.

Prior to the latest wave of arrests, a 36-year-old man was arrested in the eastern German city of Chemnitz in January 2024, and his son was handed over to child protection services.

Another suspected abuser was arrested in the US based on cryptocurrency data linked to the platform.

Overall, 79 suspects have been arrested and over 3000 electronic devices seized.

Magnus Brunner, the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, said: The dismantling of this criminal network demonstrates the added value that EU agencies like Europol provide. 

This is precisely why the European Commission has presented a strategy for greater security in Europe. 

Criminals operate across borders, so we must also support investigators in doing the same. 

Many nations outside the European Union contributed to Europols operation, including the UK-based National Crime Agency (NCA)

Magnus Brunner, the EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, said: The dismantling of this criminal network demonstrates the added value that EU agencies like Europol provide

Many nations outside the European Union contributed to Europols operation, including the UK-based National Crime Agency (NCA), the Australian Federal Police, US Homeland Security Investigations, as well as agencies from Canada, Colombia and New Zealand.

NCA Senior Manager Neil Keeping said: With thanks to our law enforcement partners in Germany and Europol, a dangerous site hosting tens of thousands of child sexual abuse videos has been taken down.

NCA intelligence officers worked quickly to identify the UK users of the site, providing a package of intelligence to forces across the country so arrests could be made and children could be safeguarded.

Providing this global to local response is paramount in our role to protect children from child sexual abuse and criminals who seek out this content.