UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail
Paedophile porn rings selling live streams of rape involving children as young as six over Skype in return for Bitcoins, warns Europol
By JOHN HALL FOR MAILONLINE
Hi-tech criminals are increasingly selling live streams of child rape over legitimate chat sites and apps such as Skype for hard-to-trace virtual currencies like Bitcoin, Europol has warned.
‘Criminals that sexually exploit children online are becoming more entrepreneurial with technological developments and are profiting financially,’ Europe’s policing agency said in a special report released today on the commercial sexual exploitation of children online.
Compiled by Europol’s EC3 cybercrime centre, together with Eurojust, non-governmental organisations and credit card and online giants such as Google and Microsoft, the report paints a disturbing picture of rising online child abuse.
The sale of child abuse live streams over legitimate chat sites or video chat apps is much harder to trace than when the abuse is sold from a website.
‘The research shows that the live streaming of abuse for payment is no longer an emerging trend but an established reality,’ the report said.
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