FBI catches P2P paedophiles

17-05-2004

by Craig Liddell

The FBI has arrested and charged 65 people for using peer-to-peer networks to exchange child pornography.

On Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) revealed it had gone undercover, in an operation codenamed Operation Peer Pressure, to investigate the use of peer-to-peer networks (P2P) to exchange child pornography. Since the initiative began in November 2003, 65 people have been arrested.

"Today's announcement sends a clear message that the digital environment will not offer sanctity to those peadophiles who lurk in peer-to-peer networks," FBI Director, Robert Mueller, warned on Friday. "We will identify you. We will pursue you. We will bring you to justice."

However, he added, "Today's announcement also raises public awareness to the inherent risks associated with file-sharing networks. Parents must know that access to these networks is free and exposure to child pornography is often a frightening reality."

During the past two years, the FBI has witnessed the growing dissemination of child pornography through P2P networks. The largest of these networks, Kazaa, has been cooperating for months to help track down child porn distributors, Mary Lafferty, chief executive of the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA), said in May.

In Operation Peer Pressure, the FBI went undercover and conducted 166 sessions targeting P2P networks. They found 106 individuals with multiple images of child pornography, which led to 103 searches and the arrest or indictment of 17 people. It also led to the rescue of eight children who had been abused.

The operation follows last year's arrest of The Who co-founder, Pete Townshend, after a child pornography Web site in Texas was infiltrated by the FBI, who passed on details of 6,000 Britons who had used their credit cards to access images.

After a four-month investigation, London police cleared Townshend of the charges. But he will spend five years on a UK register of sex offenders because he visited a Web site containing child porn images. The guitarist admitted looking at the website, but said it was for research purposes.

Meanwhile, Friday's announcement signals a growing crackdown on the use of P2P to distribute child pornography.

"Let there be no doubt that peer-to-peer networks are not, and will never be, sanctuaries for those who engage in these most abhorrent crimes," Keith Lourdeau, deputy assistant director of the FBI's cyber division, said. "The FBI continues to work closely with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners, in addition to our international counterparts, to address this egregious crime problem."