2,360 Suspects In Global Child Porn Bust

Austrian Police Announce Bust Of Major Distribution Ring, FBI After 600 Suspects In U.S.

(AP)  Austrian authorities said Wednesday they have busted a major international child pornography ring involving more than 2,360 suspects from 77 countries who paid to view videos depicting young children being sexually abused.

Federal police called the case "a strike against child pornography unprecedented in Austrian criminal history."

Interior Minister Guenther Platter said the FBI was investigating about 600 of the suspects in the United States. German authorities were following leads on another 400 people, France was looking into about 100 others, and at least 23 suspects were Austrians, he said.

Platter said videos downloaded from the Internet and seized by Austria's Federal Criminal Investigations Bureau included images that showed "the worst kind of child sexual abuse."

"Girls could be seen being raped, and you could also hear screams," said Harald Gremel, an Austrian police expert on Internet crime who headed the investigation.

No suspects were yet in custody, but Austrian authorities said they were sharing their information with law enforcement in other countries in hopes that suspects could be investigated and charged.

Gremel said the investigation began in July, when a man working for a Vienna-based Internet file hosting service approached authorities at the Interior Ministry to say he noticed suspicious material.

Within 24 hours, investigators recorded more than 8,000 hits from 2,361 computer I.P. addresses in 77 countries, ranging from Algeria to South Africa, Gremel told reporters.

Germany had the largest single number of suspects in Europe, Gremel said.

Underscoring how the suspects ranged widely in age from students to retirees, he said that in Austria, the youngest person implicated was 17 and the oldest was 69.

Gremel said the videos were posted on an unidentified Russian Web site, and that users had to pay $89 to access the material.

He said investigators believed the videos — which included images of children up to age 14 — were made in Eastern Europe and uploaded to the site from somewhere in Britain.

[artist4life]

r_bayless

I'm speaking as a rape victim (was 4 years old and then 15. When grown and married, the father molested 6 year old son, courts then made me let him see his 2 year old son and he molested him..............

[islandlove71]

We have some serious SICK PEOPLE living among us. How can anyone in their right mind be so unhuman.

GOD HELP THEM

[joshsgirl]

I think the problem is this is becomming the norm. We hear so much of it happening that its almost like people are becomming desensitized to what is happening to our children. Online preditors are more common than most know. I have gone into yahoo chat,as a 14 year old girl(mind you I am 28)as soon as someone asks you your age and you say 14 you get cam invites of grown men masturbating,soliciting you in a private message box. We need stricter laws,harder punnishments,and a need for people to start doing their job and monitoring what their children are doing online.It makes me sick to think that when these people are caught a slap on the wriste is all they get. I have turned over to authorites all the information i can get on these people and let them take it from there however if people are not going to protect their children i guess someone might as well try.

[bellal-2009]

...images that showed "the worst kind of child sexual abuse."

Let's hope there's a certain place in hell for the perpetrators.

[j-whitman]

They are all republican's

[gaye5]

SusanHelit, you say..Yes, the laws do need to take into account the split between true child porn, and mere underage porn. There's a big difference there. But here, we're talking child porn. Not a 18 year old downloading or uploading video of themselves with a 15 or 16 year old. Huuuuuuge difference there.
Susan WHY is there are difference.. a 15/16 year old used to be considered still a child... since when is it exceptiable for children of 15/16 to be having *** let alone watching videos of themselves doing it. it is all sick.. and I have read that if a male has *** with a young teen, he is more likely to want to continue to have the excitement of *** with young teens, because they are often still innocent and virgins, and it is just a short hop to younger children.. dont know if I am right or not but it is all wrong.

Why are we not protecting our children..

well I supose we breed them for parts, we abort them, because we played around and get pregnant and because they are unwanted we get rid of them, so why not breed them for ***... is this the way we are heading, I am glad that I only have 30/40 years left on this earth...

[gaye5]

hollyt2 you say that the problems are not getting worse that they are just better at catching them.
Holly, yes this problem has always been there however it is definetly getting worse, much worse. Never before have children been able to spend hrs watching violence, ***, rapes, etc on TV, so when they grow up it is nothing for a portion of those children to go into this area.

TV has such an effect on us that business will spend billions on a few second stupid add, knowing that it will give them back many more billions, only a few second add does this so what does hrs of violence do to a child/adult, couple this with stupid parents/parent (as they must be to let their children watch this) we have a massive growing problem in all areas of crime. Governments legislates against all sorts of things for our protection, but not violence on TV, why...sensible people are not affected by it or simply turn it off, but it is not sensible people that we are worried about.. and they definetly shouldn't be looking at it..
Holly are you going to say that there has always been school shootings, or young kids into crime etc... Hang Holly, I used to be able to leave my door unlocked when we went on holiday.. of course things are getting worse, there is no punishment, and because there is no punishment the innocent suffer...
Kids cannot be smacked now, they go to jail and are out in a short while,, who said crime didn't pay...

[cesmith6]

I agree that the people that were in charge of that should be locked up, and slowly killed. That is absolutely disgusting what those animals did. I mean take advantage of children like that is an absolute sin. Not to sound cruel or anything, but i hope god locks them up in you know where. I mean seriously. Those people must have some nerve.

[susanhelit]

Yes, the laws do need to take into account the split between true child porn, and mere underage porn. There's a big difference there. But here, we're talking child porn. Not a 18 year old downloading or uploading video of themselves with a 15 or 16 year old. Huuuuuuge difference there.

And we have to watch out, because politicians will be afraid to make the proper distinctions there, for fear of being cast in the next election as being soft on pedophiles (one good reason to watch and research campaign ads very carefully, so you don't vote out the very politicians who are doing the right thing).

[gaye5]

SusanHelit says...Anyone sick enough to want this stuff belongs in jail.
I haven't read this article above as I feel it is un-necessary to full my mind with what these animals do but I feel that you are wrong Susan, In my opinion, they should be slowly and horribly killed...(but then we are up against the fact that who would have to do it..).
But first put them in jail where there are hardened criminals for a year, with a sign tattooed on their foreheads that they are child ????.. Maybe if we were tougher on these animals they would think twice about even entering this area...
If a child survives through this they will live a life of horror so why should these animals get off with a couple of years jail... I was raped at 16 and that did enough damage, so what damage does it do mentally and physically to a child.. far worse than it did to me...so kill the animals, they cant be rehabilitated at all, so why should we have to pay to keep this scum alive... and it is scary to think that their network is massive, that it is world wide and that there are animals high up in it...