site.btaNine Detained in Police Operation Against Online Sexual Exploitation of Children

Nine people, aged between 35 and 48, have been detained in a police operation to counter online sexual exploitation of children carried out by the cybercrime unit of the General Director for Combating Organized Crime. The operation has been carried out over the past two months, under the supervision of the prosecutor's office, the Interior Ministry said.

In the course of the investigation, it was established that using false identities, two of the men contacted teenagers on the Internet teenagers and manipulated their victims to participate in pornographic activities. Three other men shared the content online via closed groups. Four of the detainees used the resources of peer-to-peer networks - to download files containing child sexual abuse for subsequent exchange around the world.

Computer systems, laptops, external media, flash drives, video cameras and other media containing a vast amount of child sexual abuse material were seized from the homes of the detainees.

Work on the cases is continuing, under the supervision of the prosecution.

There is a steep rise in online crimes against children, not only in Bulgaria, but throughout Europe, Antoaneta Vassileva, coordinator at the Bulgarian Safer Internet Center, told BTA in an interview, after alerts doubled in the past year. The centre works in partnership with the Interior Ministry's Cybersecurity Directorate.

The Centre's hotline received more than 46,300 alerts last year, of which 95% for online sexual exploitation of children.