Azov Films exploited a “grey area” in child porn law that seemingly allowed images of nude children that are only sexual by context. Detectives in Toronto took down the company and uncovered over 10,000 customer names and addresses in ninety countries. Over 386 children were saved from more harm, but the head of Azov might be out of jail as early as January 2018.
From the Walrus:
Read Full Article »Today, internet child pornography has grown into a market with a value between $3 and $20 billion, and the police who investigate online child exploitation have been playing a long game of catch-up. One of the computers seized from Landslide yielded a customer database with 100,000 names, addresses, email addresses, and credit card numbers. These led, in 2001, to a sting called Operation Avalanche, which resulted in the arrest of more than 100 child sex offenders and pornographers. In 2009, during Operation Joint Hammer, the fbi arrested more than sixty Americans and rescued fourteen girls—some as young as three years old—from abuse. In the years that followed, those cases led to the arrest of twenty-two others in Operation Nest Egg. It's an axiom of the field that each successful child porn case unearths a new motherlode of leads—and makes collectors more cautious. Online collectors and producers are often experts at encryption, and they have grown adept at defending their actions through free-expression laws.
