(AgapePress) - German authorities have cracked one of the biggest global child pornography rings involving some 26,500 users in 166 countries. More busts like this might become the norm, though, as the number of websites for child pornography has doubled in the last year.
More than half the child porn sites are hosted in the United States, according to the United Kingdom's National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) -- and the number of such sites in Russia doubled in the last year. The number of websites containing images of child abuse rose by 64% in 2002, according to NCIS' intelligence from around the world.
A Seattle-based Internet filtering company reports similar explosive growth of web-based porn pages and sites. N2H2 reports that its porn-site database has grown 18-fold in the last six years. According to the company's database, growth during that period has been as follows:
Year
Porn Pages
Porn Sites
1998
14,366,200
71,831
1999
25,837,800
129,189
2000
48,414,400
242,072
2001
62,330,400
311,652
2002
177,501,000
887,505
2003
260,000,000
1,300,000
The raid in Germany, code-named Operation Marcy, is one of the largest busts to date. In the sweep, hundreds of raids were conducted and police seized 745 computers, at least 35,500 CDs, 8,300 diskettes and 5,800 videos. One photograph seized showed a baby of four months being abused.
Child pornography sites may be hosted on Internet servers in one country and managed from somewhere else, making it difficult for police to trace offenders, most of whom are male, and to identify victims.
"One thing the Internet has done is to internationalize the child pornography business," an NCIS representative said. "This has made it easier for offenders to escape law enforcement agencies across borders."
Jason Collum, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a staff writer for AFA Journal, a monthly publication of the American Family Association.
NOTE: News and information presented on this web site is for informational purposes only. ChristiansUnite.com does not necessarily endorse the views and opinions expressed.
