One of the largest paedophile networks in the world has been shut down in an international operation coordinated by Europol.
A sickening dark web site ‘Kidflix’ – created for the sole purpose of sexually exploiting children – offered around 72, 000 videos of abuse, even including ‘unimaginably horrific acts against children, toddlers and even babies’.
Established in 2021, the platform had more than 1.8 million users over the last five years, before it was dismantled on March 11, 2025.
Police have since arrested 79 people in connection with the investigation, but more than 1,400 suspects who used the site have been identified.
Some of those arrested not only uploaded and watched videos – but also abused children themselves.
In one harrowing case, a 36-year-old man who had ‘offered his young son for games’ was detained. A ‘serial abuser’ based in the US has also been identified.
Led by German forces, Operation Stream has been branded as ‘one of the biggest blows against child pornography in recent years, if not ever’, the deputy head of the Bavarian criminal police, Guido Limmer, told a press conference.
Altogether, 36 countries, including Britain, participated in the mission to take down ‘Kidflix’.
The scale of the abuse allowed is unprecedented. On average, 3.5 new videos were uploaded every hour, many of which had never been seen by investigators before.
Unlike other websites hosting images of child sex abuse, ‘Kidflix’ allowed users to stream videos as well as download files.
It was a highly organized and profitable operation, not just another corner of the dark web.
Users gained access to videos using tokens bought using cryptocurrency or earned through tasks, such as categorising videos or uploading abusive material.
Catherine de Bolle, Europol’s executive director said: ‘The digital dimension has driven a rapid evolution in online child sexual exploitation, offering offenders a borderless platform to contact and groom victims, as well as to create, store, and exchange child sexual abuse material.
‘Some attempt to frame this as merely a technical or cyber issue – but it is not.
‘There are real victims behind these crimes, and those victims are children.’
As part of the operation, German authorities intervened on 96 occasions to safeguard children.
In 12 instances, they had been able to stop ongoing child sex abuse. In all, 39 children had been protected during the investigation.
The ‘bulk’ of the suspects identified by investigators were between 20 and 40 years old, with the average age around 31, senior prosecutor Thomas Goger said at the press conference.
The oldest user identified was in their seventies, while the youngest had been born in 2006.
Suspects were typically people who had been on the darknet for a long time.
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