Operation Artemis: Two Darknet Child Pornography Website Admins Arrested
Operation Artemis: Human trafficking and child abuse have been on the dark web since the time of inception. The traffickers, users and abusers populating the human trafficking sites on the darknet where the vulnerable sections of humanity get betrayed in most horrific ways would easily stack up for the tenth circle Inconceivable debauchery and depravity witnessed here are downright disgusting. Benjamin Faulkner, a Canadian, was the owner of Child’s Play, a dark-net child pornography website that at its peak had over 1 million profiles. The website showcased over 100 producers of pornography who raped and brutalized children and shot videos of their sadism for the keen delight of pedophiles around the world.
After running the site for the first six months, the United States Department of Homeland Security captured Benjamin Faulkner along with his associate Patrick Falte when they met in Virginia in October 2016. At the time of his arrest, Faulkner carried on his electronic devices a child porn collection of 47,000 images and 2,900 videos. Another such child pornography site called the Gift box is run by his associate Falte who is also the administrator of the same site has been shut down in November 2016. Both the administrators of Child’s Play and Gift box were arrested by the United States Department of Homeland Security. The case was tried in a federal court and both of the partners were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The Australian Queensland Police Service Task Force seized the child pornography website that was known as Child’s Play in part of a major operation called Operation Artemis. Police officers Jon Rouse and Paul Griffiths of Queensland Police impersonated the website’s founders for 11 months, engaging with pedophiles and sharing material online with the object of catching perpetrators as a part of Operation Artemis, a joint investigation effort involving Australian, American and European authorities.
