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Boystown (website)

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Boystown
Type of site
Child pornography file sharing
LaunchedJune 2019[1]
Current statusOffline (as of mid-April 2021)[2]

Boystown was a child pornography website run through the Tor network as a hidden service.

Background

As of May 2021, the website was considered the largest international darknet platform to host child pornography. The website had 400,000 registered users. The website was found to have what prosecutors considered some of the most severe sexual abuse images of toddlers.[2][3]

Website content

The website featured various forums and chats for communication. The illegal images and videos were posted on the forums and the chats where members were able to communicate with one another.[4] There were two chat services provided, one called "Lolipub" and the other was known as "BOYSPUB".[1] The child abuse materials exchanged between users were of young children and toddlers, most of which were boys, from around the world.[5] The child pornographic content had various categories including "Art", "hardcore", "kindergarten", and "toddler".[1]

Website investigation

The website was investigated by a German police task force with cooperation from Europol and international law enforcement agencies. The platforms administrators and users were under investigation for months.[2][3]

Agencies involved in the investigation

The following agencies took part in the investigation:[6]

Arrests

There were three primary suspects that were discovered and identified during the investigation: a 40-year-old man from Paderborn, a 49-year-old man from Munich and a 58-year-old man from Northern Germany who was living in Paraguay. The suspects allegedly acted as administrators for the website and gave advice to its users on how to evade law enforcement while using the platform.[2] Another suspect was a 64-year-old man from Hamburg who was accused of being one of the most active users uploading over 3,500 posts.[2][3]

Website shutdown

In mid-April 2021, the website was raided by authorities and shutdown.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Europol Just Took Down One of the World's Largest Dark Web Child Porn Sites". 3 May 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Police bust dark web child porn site used by more than 400,000 members". 3 May 2021. Retrieved 5 May 2021.
  3. ^ a b c "Police take down 'Boystown,' one of the largest child porn sites on the dark web". 3 May 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  4. ^ "BOYSTOWN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY SITE BUSTED". 4 May 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  5. ^ "German police make arrests as they shut down large darknet site housing child abuse material". 3 May 2021. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
  6. ^ "4 arrested in takedown of dark web child abuse platform with some half a million users". 3 May 2021. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
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