Australian investigation disrupts child exploitation network

A national Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation has disrupted a network of online child predators who have allegedly been sharing child exploitation material, with 15 men arrested in Australia last week.

The AFP executed 19 search warrants across Australia, arresting men between the ages of 21 and 64.

These men were allegedly accessing child sexual exploitation material via a peer-to-peer file sharing network, with images depicting children including infants, being sexually abused.

From 16-23 March 2012, AFP officers conducted warrants seizing computers, hard drives, laptop computers, portable storage devices and mobile phones alleged to contain hundreds of thousands of child abuse images and videos.

The investigation began in December 2011, after the AFP received a referral from INTERPOL referencing Australian internet users allegedly accessing and sharing child exploitation material and using the same file sharing network to do so.

As a result of the INTERPOL referral, a number of suspects were identified across Australia.

Since 2005, 850 offenders have been arrested by the AFP for 1123 charges relating to online child sexual exploitation.

Further information on this investigation is available on the AFP website.