International Police Operations Against Online Child Pornography

The amount of media attention given to the issue of child pornography has risen dramatically. A search of a global English-language newspaper archive showed that between 1976 and 1989 there were 2,095 articles that referred to child pornography, between 1990 and 1994 there were 4,573 articles, between 1995 and 1999 there were 21,507 articles and between 2000 and September 2004 there were 51,270 articles (Factiva 2004). To some extent, the results of the search are affected by changes to database recording practices over time. The dramatic increase in media coverage also reflects a number of other developments: the proliferation of material through the use of digital information and communications technologies; the introduction in many countries of specific offences of possessing child pornography; increased police activity in response to new laws; and a fascination with the aspects of international networking and the numbers of persons involved. There has been a steady stream of reports of various police operations that have led to the identification of tens, hundreds and even hundreds of thousands of possible suspects, involving a confusing array of individuals, networks and police operation code-names. This paper analyses major operations that have been reported since the early 1990s following the advent of the internet and the widespread enactment of child pornography possession offences