US, South Korean officials shutdown world's largest child porn website

According to the law enforcement Officials, after the raid and the arrest of Jong-Woo Son, the alleged South Korea-based administrator of the world's largest child pornography website, the United States and international law enforcement authorities have completely shut down the site, 'Welcome to Video' on October 17. The Deputy Assistant US Attorney General, Richard Downing said this announcement should be a message for the people who are involved in crimes of that nature that the authorities are 'coming for you'.

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The host of the bitcoin-based market

The “Welcome to the video” website is reportedly also one of the hosts of bitcoin-based online shopping sites that reportedly filled the empty space created by shutting down Silk Road in 2016 which was allegedly a black market exchange for narcotics, prostitution and other darknet activities. Since the US authorities put an end to the eBay-styled Silk Road, they have also pressed charges on rivals like Wall Street Market and Valhalla who tried to replace the website. But, each of the competitors barred the users from the trade of child porn or soliciting killing for hire. According to the US prosecutors during court filings, the 'Welcome to the Video' website used to only warn the users against uploading adult pornography. The site was seized back in March 2018, when the US, Korean and British authorities have been working in synergy to get full details on the website's functioning.

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Tracked anonymous users

Since 2018, according to the court filings, investigators found that nearly thousands of the more than 250,000 unique video files were linked and the search terms were that of “preteen hardcore”, “paedophile”. These included references to sex involving children who are as young as two and four years old. The authorities tracked the previous users of the website who were anonymous and tracked their server data to prosecute the customers for making illegal payments, downloads, uploading videos, and exploiting the child pornography distribution network. As per reports, Jessie Liu of DC, the US Attorney has said that the sexual exploitation of children is one of the worst forms of evil imaginable. Furthermore, she believes that the government has no higher priority than ensuring the safety of children. 

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(With agency inputs)