United States Child Prostitution Network Involving 251 Children Dismantled: Report

United States authorities announced the arrest of 14 members of a child pornography network which involved 251 children, mostly from the United States and five other countries: Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Belgium.

Through a press release, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported that the people arrested used virtual characters to connect with children aged between 3 and 17 on social networks, focusing on United States victims who have been identified by authorities as children from 39 different states, mostly between 13 and 15 years of age. The report details that of the 251 victims, 23 are from Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Belgium.

"228 are from the United States, 23 from the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Belgium. Eight of the victims were women and 243 were men. Most of the victims, 159, were between ages 13 and 15. 59 victims were between ages 16 and 17; 26 victims were between ages 10 to 12; four victims from 7 to 9; one was between 4 to 6 and two victims were aged 3 or younger," detailed the ICE report.

Never before in the history of this agency have we identified and found this many minor victims during the course of a single investigation of child abuse," said Daniel Ragsdale, the Deputy Director of ICE, according to Reuters.

The report on the dismantling operations of companies relating to online child exploitation, published in parts by ICE, said that the arrested men are accused as a part of a conspiracy to operate a child pornography enterprise, eleven of which have been accused by a Louisiana District Court, and the other three by other American entities.

The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, expressed his approval to the results obtained from "Operation Round Table", carried out by ICE and the DHS.

Authorities detailed that the website which was hidden in the Darknet, a hidden portion of the internet only accessible through Tor, had been operating since June 2012 to June 2013, moment in which the website had over 2,000 videos and over 27,000 subscribers.