Hundreds arrested in China over dark web videos of young girls being abducted and raped
Suspects detained across country over the child-porn ring, which had its videos accessed more than 20,000 times
Police in China have cracked down on a child-pornography ring on the dark web involving more than 30 under-age girls who were raped or molested, and arrested hundreds of suspects from across the mainland, media reports said.
Police arrested the primary suspect in the case, a 19-year-old man, in March after being informed by the US Homeland Security Department that some Chinese internet users had been uploading a massive amount of child pornography on the dark web, Xinhua reported.
The dark or deep web refers to internet content that is not accessible through conventional search engines, and is therefore a haven for cyber criminals.
Hundreds of videos were made available on the dark web by the pornography ring. According to the Jinghua Times, they showed more than 30 young girls being abducted, some by men on motorcycles, and then being raped or molested. The videos were accessed by internet users more than 20,000 times, a police officer was quoted as saying in the paper.
The primary suspect, surnamed Sun, had three terabytes of pornography, including 400 gigabytes of child porn, when arrested at his apartment in Beijing, Xinhua said.