Police shuts down KidFlix child sexual exploitation platform

April 2, 2025

Police raid

Kidflix, one of the largest platforms used to host, share, and stream child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on the dark web, was shut down on March 11 following a joint action coordinated by German law enforcement.

Dubbed Operation Stream, this joint international investigation is led by the State Criminal Police of Bavaria (Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt) and the Bavarian Central Office for the Prosecution of Cybercrime (ZCB).

The joint operation was also supported by Europol analysts from the European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), who analyzed thousands of videos, providing evidence to facilitate the investigation.

Operation Stream started in 2022 and has so far led to 79 arrests, 1,393 suspects identified, and over 3,000 electronic devices seized between March 10 and March 23, 2025.

"A total of 1.8 million users worldwide logged on to the platform between April 2022 and March 2025. On 11 March 2025, the server, which contained around 72,000 videos at the time, was seized by German and Dutch authorities. Some of those arrested not only uploaded and watched videos but also abused children," Europol said.

According to the Dutch National Police, information about the suspects has been shared with investigation authorities in 35 countries, who had official warning conversations with them between March 10 and March 21.

Many of the suspects identified during Operation Stream were cross-referenced with Europolțs databases, showing that a large portion of those involved in child sexual exploitation are often repeat offenders already on law enforcement's radar.

Launched in 2021, Kidflix hosted over 91,000 unique videos with a total running time of 6,288 hours while it was active. Roughly 3.5 new videos were uploaded to the dark web platform every hour, many previously unknown to law enforcement.

"Unlike other known platforms of this kind, Kidflix not only enabled users to download CSAM but also to stream video files. Users made payments using cryptocurrencies, which were subsequently converted into tokens," Europol added.

"By uploading CSAM, verifying video titles and descriptions and assigning categories to videos, offenders could earn tokens, which were then used to view content. Each video was uploaded in multiple versions – low, medium and high quality – allowing criminals to preview the content and pay a fee to unlock higher quality versions."

In February, law enforcement agencies from 19 countries also arrested 25 suspects linked to a criminal ring distributing AI-generated child sexual abuse material. During Operation Cumberland, investigators identified 273 suspected members of this criminal network and seized 173 electronic devices.

Europol launched the Stop Child Abuse – Trace An Object initiative in 2017, allowing people to provide information that can help cases of child sexual abuse by recognizing objects linked to ongoing investigations. The Australian Federal Police also launched its own version of the Stop Child Abuse initiative in March 2021, focusing on the Asia Pacific region.