In the fight against child pornography, Greek authorities in the city of Patras, in central Greece, have arrested a 26-year-old computer science student, as part of a wide-reaching operation spanning 35 countries. The operation, coordinated by Europol and under the auspices of Bavarian authorities, led to the discovery of disturbing material during raids on the suspect’s residence.
Authorities seized five hard drives from the student’s home, where they found evidence that he had accessed a specific platform on the “dark web” containing more than 90,000 videos and thousands of hours of material related to child sexual abuse.
This arrest follows similar operations conducted months earlier by Greece’s Cyber Crime Unit, where a 23-year-old student was apprehended in Athens, and another was arrested in Larissa.
In a raid at the first suspect’s home, authorities uncovered files, including photos and videos, depicting the sexual abuse of minors under the age of 15.
The Europol-led operation is being hailed as the largest of its kind ever conducted, involving multiple countries around the world. So far, 79 individuals have been arrested out of 1,393 users of the illicit platform “Kidflix.”
Europol also reported that 39 minors were rescued during the operation, highlighting the scale and success of the effort. During the investigations, over 3,000 electronic devices were confiscated, and the operation is still ongoing with the goal of identifying more users of the child pornography platform.
As outlined in Europol’s statement, some of those arrested are suspected of being involved in the sexual abuse of minors.
German and Dutch authorities were instrumental in seizing the central server of the platform, which at the time contained 72,000 videos. In total, 91,000 videos were uploaded and distributed through Kidflix, which had been active since 2021 and attracted 1.8 million users over the past three years.
Unlike other similar platforms, Kidflix enabled real-time streaming of child abuse content, not just storage. Users paid with cryptocurrency, which was converted into credits, and could earn more by uploading material and helping categorize videos, according to Europol.
This operation is considered the largest ever conducted in the battle against child sexual exploitation and one of the most significant efforts Europol has coordinated in recent years.
