An investigation led by police in the German state of Bavaria has led to the removal of an international pedophile video-sharing network called Kidflix, which hosted 1.8 million users in the past three years.
Europol said Operation Stream involved law enforcement in 35 countries, including the United States, Canada, Colombia, Australia, and New Zealand.
“Kidflix was created in 2021 by a cybercriminal who made a huge profit from it, as it quickly became one of the most popular platforms among pedophiles,” Europol said.
Kidflix also organized the child sexual abuse material into categories.
Kidflix, which operated on the dark web, said 1.8 million users logged on to the site between April 2022 and March 11, 2025, when its server was seized by German and Dutch police.
The Kidflix server was found to contain 72,000 videos of child sexual abuse, and users paid to watch films using cryptocurrency. On average, seven new videos were uploaded every two hours.
Europol said 1,393 suspects had so far been identified globally, and 79 individuals had already been arrested for sharing and distributing child sexual abuse material. Some of them are also believed to have perpetrated the abuse themselves.
It is not clear whether the individual who set up Kidflix and profited from it—who has not been identified—was among those arrested.
‘Borderless Platform’
Europol’s executive director, Catherine De Bolle, said in a statement: “The digital dimension has driven a rapid evolution in online child sexual exploitation, offering offenders a borderless platform to contact and groom victims, as well as to create, store, and exchange child sexual abuse material.“Some attempt to frame this as merely a technical or cyber issue, but it is not. There are real victims behind these crimes, and those victims are children. As a society, we must act to protect our children.”
Magnus Brunner, the European commissioner for internal affairs and migration, said: “The dismantling of this criminal network demonstrates the added value that EU agencies like Europol provide. This is precisely why the European Commission has presented a strategy for greater security in Europe.
“Criminals operate across borders, so we must also support investigators in doing the same.”
Europol said it had seized 3,000 electronic devices during the investigation and was providing protection for 39 children who are suspected to have been abused or are at risk of being abused.
It said 91,000 videos in total had been uploaded and shared on Kidflix, with a total running time of 6,288 hours.
“Unlike other known platforms of this kind, Kidflix not only enabled users to download child sexual abuse material but also to stream video files,” Europol said. “Users made payments using cryptocurrencies, which were subsequently converted into tokens.”
The operators of Kidflix incentivized users to upload child sexual abuse material by offering tokens that could be redeemed to watch other films.
Thirty people have been arrested in the UK.
“With thanks to our law enforcement partners in Germany and Europol, a dangerous site hosting tens of thousands of child sexual abuse videos has been taken down,” Neil Keeping, NCA’s senior manager, said.
“We will continue to work with international law enforcement partners to disrupt the online platforms that operate on the dark web, purely for the sexual gratification of offenders, and ensure children are safeguarded from abuse.”
