European countries take action against online child sexual abuse

Law enforcement agencies from 26 European countries, supported and coordinated by Europol, have carried out a major crackdown against online child sex abuse file-sharing networks.

So far ‘Operation Icarus’ has helped to identify 269 suspects and arrested 112 suspects, spread across 22 involved countries*.

The operation targeted those sharing the most extreme forms of video material, which included babies and toddlers being sexually abused and raped. A lot of the material seized during the house searches is awaiting forensic examination in order to support follow-up investigations and possible prosecution of offenders. However, this operation has already uncovered previously unknown networks of child sex offenders operating on different internet channels.

*The participating countries are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Croatia, Norway and Switzerland.

For more information on Operation Icarus, visit the Europol website.