International Law Enforcement Shuts Down Major Child Pornography Site; Over 300 Arrested
British National Crime Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice have announced the successful operation to shut down “Welcome to Video,” one of the largest dark web sites distributing child pornography. The multi-year investigation also involved law enforcement agencies from Germany, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Czech Republic.
Authorities report the seizure of more than eight terabytes of video (about 250,000 video files) depicting the sexual exploitation of children. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is currently analyzing these videos, and it has already been determined that approximately 45% of the reviewed footage is new content previously unknown to investigators.
In the United States and 11 other countries, 337 individuals connected to the site have already been arrested and charged. For example, British authorities have launched 18 investigations and secured 7 convictions, including one individual sentenced to 22 years in prison for raping a five-year-old boy and uploading a video of sexual abuse of a three-year-old girl to Welcome to Video.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, at least 23 underage victims in the United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom—who were actively abused by site users—were rescued as a result of the operation.
Site Administrator Identified and Charged
The administrator and creator of Welcome to Video, which launched in 2015, was identified as 23-year-old South Korean citizen Jong Woo Son. He is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence in South Korea for his activities, and now faces additional charges in the United States on nine counts, including distribution of child sexual abuse material and money laundering.
Bitcoin Used to Monetize Child Exploitation
Investigators report that Welcome to Video was one of the first dark web sites to monetize child sexual exploitation using Bitcoin. Each user received a unique Bitcoin address upon account creation. Authorities estimate that about one million such wallets were associated with the site. Users either paid 0.03 Bitcoin for download rights or earned credits by uploading new material. Between June 2015 and March 2018 (when the site was shut down), the site processed $370,000 in cryptocurrency.
Breakthroughs in the Investigation
Investigators were aided by a brief period during which the Welcome to Video server was misconfigured, exposing several public IP addresses linked to the site. Additionally, Bitcoin wallets and cryptocurrency transactions were analyzed by U.S. Internal Revenue Service agents, using tools from Chainalysis, a company specializing in blockchain transaction analysis. Chainalysis had previously assisted authorities in investigating the now-defunct and notorious BTC-e exchange, which was used for money laundering.
Authorities Call Operation One of the Largest and Most Disturbing
Law enforcement agencies describe the shutdown of Welcome to Video as one of the largest and most disturbing operations of its kind. “Operators of anonymization services like Tor should ask themselves if they are doing enough to protect children and make their platforms unusable for criminals,” commented U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Downing.