Article Details

Europol Dismantles Kidflix With 72,000 CSAM Videos Seized in Major Operation. In one of the largest coordinated law enforcement operations, authorities have dismantled Kidflix, a streaming platform that offered child sexual abuse material (CSAM). "A total of 1.8 million users worldwide logged on to the platform between April 2022 and March 2025," Europol said in a statement. "On March 11, 2025, the server, which contained around 72,000 videos at the time, was seized by German and Dutch authorities." The European law enforcement agency described it as the largest operation undertaken to combat child sexual exploitation. It has been codenamed Operation Stream. The multi-year probe, which commenced in 2022 and involved 38 countries across the world, saw 1,393 identified globally through an analysis of payment transactions, with 79 of them arrested to date for distributing CSAM. Some of the apprehended individuals have also been accused of not only uploading and watching such content but also abused children. In addition, more than 3,000 electronic devices have been seized. The investigation remains ongoing. According to Europol, Kidflix launched in 2021 and amassed a catalog of 91,000 unique videos over time. Roughly 3.5 new videos were uploaded to the platform every hour on average. The platform, which had about 190,000 registered users since April 2022 and until its shutdown, offered the ability to both download and stream the content after users made payments using cryptocurrencies, which were then converted into tokens. "By uploading CSAM, verifying video titles and descriptions and assigning categories to videos, offenders could earn tokens, which were then used to view content," Europol said. "Each video was uploaded in multiple versions – low, medium and high quality – allowing criminals to preview the content and pay a fee to unlock higher quality versions." That said, the identified offenders represent only a fraction of the 1.8 million users who are suspected to have logged on to the platform between April 2022 and March of this year. Per Dutch police officials, 13 suspects have been identified in the Netherlands, although no arrests have been made so far. Participating countries included Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. "The digital dimension has driven a rapid evolution in online child sexual exploitation, offering offenders a borderless platform to contact and groom victims, as well as to create, store, and exchange child sexual abuse material," said Catherine De Bolle, Europol Executive Director." "Some attempt to frame this as merely a technical or cyber issue – but it is not. There are real victims behind these crimes, and those victims are children." The development comes as the European Commission unveiled a new internal security strategy called ProtectEU to better detect cyber threats, fight serious and organized crimes, and share intelligence across the region. As part of the initiative, the Commission is expected to "present a Technology Roadmap on encryption to identify and assess technological solutions to enable lawful access to data by law enforcement authorities in 2026." The idea, it added, is to "identify and assess technological solutions that would enable law enforcement authorities to access encrypted data in a lawful manner, safeguarding cybersecurity and fundamental rights."