AFP, Berlin

German investigators said Wednesday that they had dismantled a major platform for the distribution of child sex abuse images with 1.8 million users worldwide in an international operation coordinated by Europol.

The move to shut down the “KidFlix” streaming service was “one of the biggest blows against child pornography in recent years, if not ever”, said Guido Limmer, deputy head of the Bavarian criminal police.

The probe was led by German police and supported by authorities in 38 countries and was coordinated by Europol.

In all, “KidFlix” is said to have hosted more than 91,000 videos with images of child sex abuse, totalling around 6,288 hours of film, according to Bavarian police.

Authorities were able to identify almost 1,400 individual users of the platform, which was hosted on the so-called darknet.

Police in March carried out searches at locations in 31 countries in the “largest operation ever” organised by Europol, according to Limmer.

A joint raid by German and Dutch authorities resulted in the seizure of a hard drive with around 72,000 videos of child sex abuse.

In Germany, police carried our raids at 96 locations, targeting 103 individual suspects, the Bavarian criminal police said.

Police arrested a 36-year-old man in the eastern German city of Chemnitz in January 2024 who had searched for abuse images on “KidFlix”. The man had also “offered his young son for games”, Limmer said. The child had been handed over to child protection services.

Investigators had also been able to identify a “serial” abuser in the United States, Limmer said.