TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Worldwide Child Porn Ring Used Net

Worldwide Child Porn Ring Used Net

Andrew Stern (reuters@telecom-digest.org)
Wed, 15 Mar 2006 12:53:15 -0600

By Andrew Stern

U.S. and Canadian law enforcement officials said on Wednesday they had
cracked an international pornography ring that featured live
molestations of children streamed over the Internet.

Twenty-seven people from nine U.S. states and Canada, Australia and
Britain have been charged with possession, receipt, distribution and
manufacture of child pornography, and all but one have been arrested,
according to U.S. federal authorities and Canadian police.

One of those arrested has been held since January, while others were
arrested as recently as Tuesday. The one who remains at large is
considered a fugitive, officials said.

"This international undercover investigation revealed an insidious
network that engaged in worldwide trafficking in child pornography,
including live molestations of children transmitted over the
Internet," U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said in a statement
released ahead of a visit to Chicago.

Authorities have identified seven child victims, including an infant
whose molestation in April by a suburban Chicago man was transmitted
live via an Internet chat room to a co-conspirator who used the screen
name "Big_Daddy619."

Four of those charged allegedly molested the children, making the
resulting images available in the chat room called "Kiddypics &
Kiddyvids," that facilitated trading of thousands of images and
videos, the statement said.

Manufacturing child pornography carries a minimum 15-year prison
sentence, while the other charges call for minimum sentences of at
least five years.

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.

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