International Child Porn Ring On Facebook Cracked By Police

ADELAIDE, Australia — An international child pornography ring that operated on Facebook has been brought down with the social networking site's support, Australian police said Friday.

Eleven people have been charged in Australia, Britain and Canada in connection with the syndicate, which involved people using Facebook to distribute and view graphic sexual images, police said.

The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported Friday that Facebook management knew about the pornography on its website and had deactivated accounts of people involved, but had not informed police.

Facebook and Australian Federal Police issued a joint statement in response to the report saying the networking site had immediately taken action once a police investigation began, and its assistance was "integral to bringing down this international child pornography syndicate."

The statement acknowledged the difficulty Facebook had in stopping the syndicate, as users would set up false new accounts after their accounts were deactivated.

"Policing in this social networking environment is a challenge, but the cooperation during this operation demonstrates that international law enforcement is united in a global fight against online child exploitation material," the statement said. "It is important that content service providers including Facebook constantly scan for child exploitation material, and then inform law enforcement of their findings."

Australian police said they began investigating the case in March after a covert agent established an online identity on Facebook and was approached by a member of the child pornography ring.

By June, the investigation included police in the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, South Africa and Switzerland, police said. The investigation is continuing, they said.

Facebook has no staff in Australia. Joe Sullivan, Facebook's chief security officer, said a member of his team would visit Australia in September for meetings with police and child safety advocates.

He said Facebook and the Australian police were working on protocols to ensure that illegal activity would be reported more rapidly to police.

Comments

[hulagirrrl]

03:16 PM on 08/31/2010

Congratulations to law enforcement, one down and tons to go. I salute all law enforcement and volunteers who are helping to protect our children. Big Aloha.

[whowhatwhywherewhen]

01:07 PM on 08/31/2010

Benson and Stabler solved this a long time ago....

[Condemned25]

04:19 AM on 08/30/2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Color_Climax_Corporation#This_company

read this from the discussion section:

"But I doubt, that CCC produced cp after 80 in other countries. They would have be in serious troubles in DK. It was a taboo theme after 1980. My girlfriend never heard something about this in 1985 and 1986. If she had known, what they did, she wouldnt have performed there. The age of consent was lowered in DK from 16 to 15 in 1973, if I remember correctly. In 1999, you still could get porn with 15. This was the last time I was in DK. You can see the "15" seal on the VHS and older DVDs. Porn production with 15 was legal until 2003, then they had to implement an EU law all european countries have implemented in national law, with the exception of Germany, who will do this in the next months. They still have a 14-year minimum age, only porn under 14 is definied as childporn. ( But they never have produced commercial porn with under 18, because the legal status is unclear or even illegal )"

[Condemned25]

12:40 AM on 08/30/2010

What about girls like this who themselves were always sexuald eviants since being younhg due to being raped or having repressive parents?:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodil_Joensen

Is it still the guys fault and not theirs? And what about if they need an older love or an animal (like she did in that case) to cope with the rape but it isnt forced or anything like that? What do you guys say about those cases?

[Condemned25]

04:18 AM on 08/30/2010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Color_Climax_Corporation#This_company

read this from the discussion section:

"But I doubt, that CCC produced cp after 80 in other countries. They would have be in serious troubles in DK. It was a taboo theme after 1980. My girlfriend never heard something about this in 1985 and 1986. If she had known, what they did, she wouldnt have performed there. The age of consent was lowered in DK from 16 to 15 in 1973, if I remember correctly. In 1999, you still could get porn with 15. This was the last time I was in DK. You can see the "15" seal on the VHS and older DVDs. Porn production with 15 was legal until 2003, then they had to implement an EU law all european countries have implemented in national law, with the exception of Germany, who will do this in the next months. They still have a 14-year minimum age, only porn under 14 is definied as childporn. ( But they never have produced commercial porn with under 18, because the legal status is unclear or even illegal )"

[sunbad]

05:01 AM on 08/29/2010

Where did Tannalee Smith get the story? From Facebook publicity or Joe Sullivan? FB's supposed "support" was not reported that way in Australia, where police expressed frustration and disbelief that there was no police or law enforcement liaison, and that even despite repeated statements by one of the perpetrators, FB refused to cooperate or do anything for months – this was uncovered in March, it's now six months later and they've only just notified police. How much time was wasted, how many kids abused, because FB doesn't care? Also, how is it so many race hate sites exist on FB in contravention of their supposed policies? Read more about FB's "cooperation" from the Sydney Morning Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/facebook-gives-way-after-child-porn-bust-20100827-13vz4.html

[William Young]

09:43 PM on 08/28/2010

Sick F***s, then having the audacity to put this on FACEBOOK? All 11 of them should be publicly flogged and caned.

[shirlyujest]

07:25 PM on 08/28/2010

So glad to see this at the very bottom of the page...don't want to call attention to the story, to facebook's lack of integrity in the issue (if not actual illegality)...it's a wonder this story made it at all.

[ChiProgressive]

07:12 PM on 08/28/2010

"Facebook management knew about the pornography on its website and had deactivated accounts of people involved, but had not informed police."

Why aren't any of these employees/managers getting any punishment for this?

[Nobody78]

06:36 PM on 08/28/2010

Is it just me or is HuffingtonPost deleting more and more comments lately?? At this rate they will catch up with Fox News any day.

[shirlyujest]

07:24 PM on 08/28/2010

Yeah, sometimes it gets very discouraging when you have to write everything in code to get past the mauds. and my experience is that it is the absolute worst on weekends.

[Brian Gorrell]

08:43 PM on 08/28/2010

I hardly bother any more.
Too much moderators with power issues

[brownfrown]

06:35 PM on 08/28/2010

Was Anna Chapman one of the people arrested, or was she one of the "underagers"?

[mediamarv]

07:02 PM on 08/28/2010

is that the girl in the blue dress? I thought she looked familiar.... Woods devotee?

[born 2b different]

12:22 PM on 08/29/2010

i noticed that too

[UhOh1]

05:52 PM on 08/28/2010

facebook knew and did the benign thing of deactivating accounts, but DIDN'T alert police b/c they didn't want to get the "bad" press like craigslist has gotten for prostitution. yet another example of how we need both business AND gov't regulation to make sure people are protected b/c business is only interested in one thing: profits, which i'm fine with but it needs to be checked. so all you moronic conservative tea party d-bags shut up with the no govt rhetoric. we know you're dumb. don't make yourselves look any dumber. pls.

[Nobody78]

06:33 PM on 08/28/2010

Big business does a fantastic job on regulating themselves. Corps always put people before profits. Just watch the movie "Gasland". What we need is less regulation so we can eat more bad eggs. This is the 21st century Wild Wild West, put your seat belt on and enjoy the ride.

[sprtakis69]

07:37 PM on 08/28/2010

First I'm going to put all these people over here in this factory, I'll pay them a meager salary with a few dismal benefits I’ll send 60% of the work to china, and then, and only then will I put my profits in the bank!

Always put people before profits!

Is that what you meant?

[Peter Finarovsky]

11:21 PM on 08/29/2010

That's a great idea, making this the Wild Wild West. I'll only support that if murder as legalized. If corporations and executives want to screw people out of their money and best interests, then we, the people, can screw them right back and make them afraid for their lives.

[Bruckley]

04:33 PM on 08/28/2010

Child what?

[chariotdrvr14]

03:59 PM on 08/28/2010

Well, better late than never.
Myspace was probably worse.
But anytime you create a network it runs a risk of being abused in some way.

Kinda annoyed that they're all over banning pictures of marijuana leaves on Facebook because they're against the California Marijuana Initiative. But monitoring inappropriate pics of kids rates a secondary concern on their part?

[ibsteve2u]

03:39 PM on 08/28/2010

Child porn? On Facebook? Ruh-roh...so much for my idea of cranking my DOB up to 2001 to avoid showing up on search engines.

That would be like ASKING for a knock on my door.

[Scytherius]

03:28 PM on 08/28/2010

If ever a crime called for life in prison . . .

[Nobody78]

06:34 PM on 08/28/2010

We need to save that room for marijuana dealers and abusers.