The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center, the government's child sex abuse watchdog, said 200 of the suspects and more than 15 of the children were located in Britain. A Canadian official told the Associated Press that 24 suspects were arrested and seven children were rescued in Canada in late 2005, and U.S. officials said their investigation is still underway.
ASACP Compliance Director Tim Henning told XBIZ that in May alone the organization's hotline received an average of 265 online child porn reports daily, and many of the tips were for online chat rooms. ASACP immediately sends chat-room reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a U.S. organization that fights child sexual exploitation, he said, and just this year ASACP had 8,302 of these types of reports.
Authorities from 35 countries participated in the investigation of the "Kids the Light of Our Lives" chat room — which featured images and live video of children being sexually abused — and the AP reported that officials used surveillance tactics ordinarily implemented during terrorism or drug trafficking investigations.
"The recent pedophile ring bust shows the benefit of the Virtual Global Task Force, whose conferences we have participated in, and the intricate system needed to battle this international problem," Henning said.
Canadian authorities first got word of Timothy David Martyn Cox's chat room in August 2006. British officials were then alerted, which led to Cox's arrest two months later. Cox admitted to possessing and distributing explicit images after forensic teams discovered almost 76,000 images on his computer and evidence that he had sent 11,491 to other online users. Cox is in prison indefinitely, until British authorities believe he is no longer a threat to minors.
Following Cox's arrest, authorities in Britain, Canada and Australia were able to collect evidence on several of the chat room's members after pretending to be members and even ran the chat room for 10 days under Cox's name. Authorities did not distribute any illegal images during that time.
An attempt by Gordon Mackintosh, described as Cox's lieutenant, to relaunch "Kids the Light of Our Lives" was thwarted by authorities, who arrested him earlier this year. Officers then ran the chat room once again pretending to be Mackintosh, collecting information about other chat room users.
Like Cox, Mackintosh admitted to making and distributing explicit images online, and awaits sentencing for 27 charges, all for which he has pleaded guilty.