Global Network of 87,000 Pedophiles Dismantled – U.S. Media Remains Silent
The discovery of a vast child pornography network run by pedophiles in the Darknet—a hidden section of the internet that is not visible to traditional search engines—shocked the world once more. Recently, this network, called “Elysium,” which had an astounding 87,000 members, was dismantled by German police.
Elysium provided a forum for the sharing of pictures and videos showing the sexual and physical abuse of toddlers. The website had been up and running since the end of 2016, using the Darknet’s anonymity to conceal its horrible operations from search engine algorithms and law enforcement.
Investigators found that Elysium had been in operation since 2016 and was only available via the darknet, according to Deutsche Welle, a well-known German international broadcaster. It takes specialized encrypting software to access this hidden corner of the internet, which is inaccessible through standard search engines like Google.
Evidence of extremely serious child abuse cases, including violence against children and the exploitation of the youngest victims, was discovered by Frankfurt, Germany authorities. Additionally, Elysium was used to set up appointments in order to continue abusing and exploiting defenseless children.
Most of the suspects in the Elysium network were captured in Austria and Germany. According to reports, Dutch authorities also participated in the investigation, though it is unclear how much of a role they played.
Surprisingly, the Elysium network is not the biggest child pornography bust ever, even with its substantial membership. In a prior case, the leader of the Playpen darknet platform, 58-year-old American Steven Chase, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after the platform was seized. Notably, in 2015, the US Department of Justice acknowledged that the FBI ran the Playpen website for a short time.
The Department of Justice’s decision to drop an indictment against the child pornography website, Playpen, caused a great deal of controversy. According to Wired, the FBI’s refusal to reveal specifics of their hacking methods used on the Tor anonymity network was the reason for the dismissal rather than a lack of evidence. Many were alarmed by this decision because, according to the EFF, it protected covert law enforcement techniques while granting freedom to an accused child pornographer.
The suspected platform operator, a 39-year-old man from the central German state of Hesse, returned to the Elysium network and was arrested on June 12 following a search of his home and the confiscation of the server. According to the police, a number of other suspects were also taken into custody during the investigation.
Authorities in Germany and Austria laid out the full scope of the case at a press conference in the days after the raids, and the investigation went on to deliver convictions in court. The probe was steered by the Central Office for Combating Cybercrime (ZIT) in Giessen, a special unit attached to the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor General’s office, which over the following months charged the platform’s core operators. In March 2019, a regional court in Limburg jailed four German men for founding and running the forum, handing down prison terms ranging from three years and ten months to nine years and nine months; the oldest defendant, aged 63, was additionally convicted of abusing two small children. German authorities reported that 14 suspects in total, including five Germans, were arrested and sentenced in connection with the network, several to lengthy prison terms. Prosecutors said that, before it was shut down, Elysium had drawn well over 87,000 members worldwide and had been used not only to trade material but to arrange the abuse of children in the real world.
The episode remains a stark reminder of the scale of online child exploitation, an epidemic that too often passes with little public attention even as it inflicts unspeakable harm on its youngest victims. Anyone who encounters suspected child sexual abuse material should never attempt to investigate it themselves; in the United States it can be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline, and elsewhere to local law enforcement.
