Online hacktivist group Anonymous is targeting over 40 child pornography websites. The group has claimed responsibility for shutting down ‘Lolita City’, a website used to share pictures of child abuse.
The group released a statement saying it has begun targeting websites with child porn content, adding that it has published the login details for the Lolita City’s 1,500 members online.
Anonymous said that it first contacted the hosting company, Freedom Hosting, to remove child abuse content, totalling over 100GB, from the website, but the requests were ignored. Later Anonymous hacked into the hosting company and stole login details.
Anoymous said, "We are eliminating 40+ child pornography websites, among these is Lolita City, one of the largest child pornography websites to date containing more than 100GB of child pornography."
The group added that the site and hosts were "enabling paedophiles to view innocent children, fuelling their issues and putting children at risk of abduction, molestation, rape, and death."
Anonymous has also urged other child pornography websites to remove offending content or face their wrath.
It said, "Our demands are simple. Remove all child pornography content from your servers. Refuse to provide hosting services to any website dealing with child pornography.
"This statement is not just aimed at Freedom Hosting, but everyone on the internet.
"It does not matter who you are, if we find you to be hosting, promoting, or supporting child pornography, you will become a target."
In August, US Attorney General Eric Holder and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano had revealed that 72 individuals across the world have been indicted for child sexual abuse in coordinated crackdown ‘Operation Delego’.
Holder and Napolitano exposed the international criminal ring that aimed to promote child sexual exploitation with "Super VIP" status for people who had molested children in real life.
Authorities dismantled the online bulletin board ‘Dreamboard’ which was created in 2008 and allegedly used by 600 people across the world to pictures and videos of child sex abuse. Material equivalent to 16,000 DVDs were seized.
