International law enforcement, including the Hessian authorities, have joined a global effort to dismantle a darknet platform streaming child pornography.
In a significant blow against online child exploitation, German authorities have successfully seized a Darknet streaming platform known as "KidFlix". The operation, coordinated globally by Europol at the request of the Bavarian State Criminal Investigation Office, involved a total of 38 states between March 10 and 23.
The Frankfurt am Main Public Prosecutor's Office - Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) and the Hesse State Criminal Investigation Office (HLKA) were at the forefront of the investigations. The Bavarian State Criminal Investigation Office and the ZKI of the Bamberg Public Prosecutor's Office were also instrumental in the seizure of the platform.
"KidFlix" was a platform dedicated to the publication of child and youth pornographic content. Users could stream incriminated content, write in the chat, and insert links to incriminated content on the platform. Around 54,000 such contents were freely available to users.
Seven suspects, men aged 22 to 42 from various cities and districts in Hesse, are under investigation for the suspicion of distributing, acquiring, and possessing child pornographic content under § 184b of the Criminal Code (StGB). The police measures in Hesse targeted these suspects, who are suspected of having been users of the streaming platform.
During house searches, 141 delict-specific items were secured, including laptops, tablets, USB sticks, memory cards, and smartphones. The police operation was carried out by the unit FOKUS, which is exclusively dedicated to combating sexual offenses against children and young people.
The global coordination of the operation was handled by Europol. The Bavarian State Criminal Investigation Office was involved in the seizure of "KidFlix". The search results do not provide specific names or details about the leaders of the units responsible for cooperation with the Hessian State Criminal Police Office (Hessisches Landeskriminalamt) and the Central Competence Center against Internet Exploitation and Internet Crime in the context of Operation "Stream" in Hesse.
For more information, the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime - ZIT of the Frankfurt am Main Public Prosecutor's Office can be contacted at Dr. Benjamin Krause (069/1367-4236, [email protected]). The Hesse State Criminal Investigation Office can be contacted at Laura Kaufmann-Conrad (0611/83-8310, [email protected], http://www.polizei.hessen.de).
