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A month-long covert online surveillance operation in Kerala code-named P-Hunt_20.2 has ended in the arrest of 41 persons from across the State on the charge of ‘seeking, collecting, browsing and downloading’ child pornography, according to the State police.
The police shut down several groups peddling child sex abuse material. They are Sukhalokam, Incest Lovers, Schooooool, Just fresh chat Naked Eyes, Bi/Gay Group, Incestzz&cucklodzz, Thenoorum Enthapazham, Teen Girls, Boy & Boys sex. The groups had a minimum of 400 persons as members from different States.
392 devices seized
The police also found vast caches of videos and pictures of minors stored in the mobile phones, pen drives, hard discs, tablets and laptop computers seized from the suspects. The raids resulted in the seizure of 392 devices.
Additional Director General of Police and head of the Countering Child Sexual Exploitation team Manoj Abraham said the confiscated content included videos and images captured furtively, mostly on mobile phones, in domestic environs during the COVID-19 period in Kerala. “The distressing part is that many of the videos/pictures appear to be of local children in the 6-15 age group,” he said.
The police also found child sexual abuse material content sourced from security cameras at homes and flats and images and videos of children harvested from webcams. Mr. Abraham said the flood of new such content indicated a rise in child abuse in the State.
Officials said child abuse could go unreported these days since children had little contact with their classmates or teachers due to the restriction on in-person schooling. The material was possibly from households hit by domestic violence, parental alcohol or drug addiction, or impaired adult supervision.
Surge in queries
Investigators said there was a worrying surge in internet search engine queries related to child pornography. Investigators at the Kerala Police Cyberdome tracked persons who obsessively downloaded, disseminated or traded child sexual abuse material over various social media platforms.
They used a mix of surveillance software, social engineering techniques and deceptive social media identities to insinuate themselves into the clandestine child porn sharing circles. The ‘darknet’ was the platform of choice for posting, harvesting and disseminating such material.
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