Breaking the Paedophile Rings

This week yet another ring of child sex abusers was uncovered. A particularly nasty group of 700 members located in 35 countries has been exposed. Not only did the participants collect large numbers of images of child pornography many of them were also linked together for live broadcasts of an actual abuse.
The British police uncovered the central character in this ring and after that began to uncover many other members of the ring. Through forensic investigation they were also able to identify 30 of the abused children and rescue them from the cruelty of their situation.
Of course we are delighted that the abusers have been caught but t is a very small victory in a very large battle. It is evident that there are many organisations of this kind operating around the world and their methods of ensuring secrecy have become increasingly sophisticated. Many of them evade discovery by using servers or anonymous remailers in Russia or one of the other former Eastern bloc countries.
Law enforcement officers play a cat and mouse game in trying to break these paedophile circles of abuse. No sooner do they find a way to monitor one form of information transfer than another IT method brings new problems of identification. And despite the serious nature of this crime against children it is still not regarded as a priority in some quarters. One of the ring members in Britain involved in the broadcast abuses had around 5000 child pornographic images on his computer and 392 child sex movies. Even if he is found guilty by the court he could still be released from prison in 19 months.